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MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 


FOUR    LECTURES 

DELIVERED  IN  JUNE,  1892,  IN  THE  CATHEDRAL 
CHURCH   OF   ST.   ASAPH 


BY 


CHARLES'^GORE,   M.A. 

Principal  of  Pisey  House;   Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Oxford 


NEW   YORK 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 
1892 

[^//  rights  reserved^ 


COPYRIGHT,    1892,   BY 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS. 


PEEFACE 

This  volume  contains  the  substance  of  the  lec- 
tures delivered  by  me  in  the  Cathedral  Church  of 
St.  Asaph,  about  the  festival  of  St.  Peter  in  this 
year,  on  the  subject  suggested  to  me,  viz.  the  Mis- 
sion of  the  Church.  The  lectures  were  not  written, 
and  I  had,  Avhen  they  were  delivered,  no  intention 
of  publishing  them ;  but  I  was  led  to  alter  my 
determination  and  have  here  endeavoured  to  repro- 
duce them  in  substance,  with  slight  alterations 
and  additions,  by  the  help  of  a  report  published  in 
the  Church  Times.  The  "  excitement,"  alluded  to 
in  the  opening  of  the  first  lecture,  was  that  occa- 
sioned by  the  General  Election  then  immediately 
approaching,  which,  in  Wales  at  least,  had  direct 
reference  to  the  position  of  the  Church.  The 
general  argument  of  the  lectures  will  indicate 
Avhat  is  to  my  mind  the  best  method  of  Church 
defence. 

Before  going  further  I  should  wish  to  express 
my  sense  of  the  great  good  which  gatherings  of 


iv  PREFACE 

the  Clergy,  such  as  that  in  which  it  was  my 
privilege  to  take  part  at  St.  Asaph,  are  calcu- 
lated to  do.  It  would  be  indeed  a  good  thing  if 
in  every  diocese,  especially  every  country  diocese, 
a  benefaction  similar  to  that  which  pays  a  lecturer 
at  St.  Asaph,  only  too  liberally,  were  to  open  the 
way  to  a  similar  gathering.  To  get  a  great  pro- 
portion of  the  clergy  of  a  diocese  together  during 
four  days  for  common  prayer  and  eucharist,  and 
a  course  of  instruction  such  as  leads  naturally  to 
mutual  enquiry,  discussion  and  intercourse,  seems 
to  me  a  measure  admirably  calculated  to  meet  the 
evils  which  isolation  and  the  prevalence  of  spirit- 
ual apathy  tend  to  generate  in  rural  dioceses. 
Why  should  not  the  example  be  widely  followed  ? 
I  know  that  these  lectures  will  be  condemned 
by  many  as  too  ecclesiastical.  "By  making  so 
much  of  the  Church  organization,"  it  Avill  be  said, 
"you  only  alienate  the  Nonconformists,  and  pro- 
mote disunion."  My  answer  to  this  Avould  be  a 
plain  one.  If  we  believe  —  what  the  primitive 
Church  and  the  New  Testament  documents  do,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  come  near  to  forcing  us  to  believe 
—  that  our  Lord  founded  a  visible  Church,  and 
that  this  Church  with  her  creed  and  scriptures, 
ministry  and  sacraments,  is  the  instrument  which 
He  has  given  us  to  use,  our  course  is  clear.     We 


PREFACE  V 

must  devote  our  energies  to  making  the  Church 
adequate  to  the  divine  intention — as  strong  in 
principle,  as  broad  in  compass,  as  loving  in  spirit, 
as  our  Lord  intended  her  to  be ;  trusting  that,  in 
proportion  as  her  true  motherhood  is  realized,  her 
children  will  find  their  peace  within  her  bosom. 
We  cannot  believe  that  there  is  any  religious 
need  which  at  the  last  resort  the  resources  of 
the  Church  are  inadequate  to  meet. 

Meanwhile  it  is  of  great  importance  that  we 
should  remember  that  all  baptized  persons,  even 
if  they  belong  to  separatist  organizations,  are  as 
individuals  members  of  the  body  of  Christ.  Surely 
it  would  be  well  if  we  Churchmen  endeavoured  to 
take  every  opportunity  of  cultivating  equal  and 
friendly  social  relations  with  Nonconformists.  I 
believe  Dr.  Dollinger  once  expressed  a  great  hope 
that  internal  reunion  among  Christians  in  England 
would  be  largely  promoted  by  the  common  educa- 
tion of  Churchmen  and  Nonconformists  at  the 
univemties.  This  common  education,  promoting 
friendliness  among  those  who  are  to  be  clergy  of 
the  Church  or  ministers  of  different  religious 
bodies,  may  do  much  good.  But  may  not  such 
friendly  relations  be  established  equally  well  else- 
where? Such  personal  acquaintance  is  much 
more    likely  to  do   good   than    the  attendance  of 


VI  PREFACE 

Churchmen  at  Nonconformist  gatherings  to  depre- 
ciate their  own  Churchmanship.  This  latter 
course  of  action  does  not  appear  to  minister  to 
any  other  result  than  that  of  promoting  disunion 
among  ourselves. 

Once  more,  these  lectures  will  be  said  to  minister 
to  sacerdotalism.  There  is  no  doubt  a  widespread 
horror  of  "  sacerdotalism,"  but  the  way  to  meet  it 
is  not,  I  think,  by  vague  denunciation  or  vague 
glorification  of  an  undefined  principle;  but  by 
careful  explanation  of  what  the  Catholic  principle 
of  the  apostolic  succession  in  the  ministry  means, 
as  expounded  by  the  best  theologians  and  verified 
in  the  documents  of  the  New  Testament.  Arch- 
deacon Farrar,  in  a  recent  denunciation  of  "  sacer- 
dotalism" in  the  Coyitemporary  Bevietv  for  July 
of  this  year,  has  quoted  some  expressions  of  mine 
in  repudiation  of  the  idea  of  a  vicarious  priesthood 
with  apparent  approval.  "It  is  encouraging  to 
find  that  the  head  of  the  Pusey  House  recognizes 
the  priesthood  of  the  English  Church  as  ministe- 
rial .  .  .  and  says :  '  It  is  an  abuse  of  the  sacerdotal 
conception,  if  it  be  supposed  that  the  priesthood 
exists  to  celebrate  sacrifices  or  acts  of  worship  in 
the  place  of  the  body  of  the  people  or  as  their 
substitutes.' "  May  I  assure  the  archdeacon  that 
I    am   not    separating    myself   from   other    High 


PREFACK  VU 

Churchmen  or  from  Catholic  theologians  as  a 
whole,  in  maintaining  the  ministerial  and  repre- 
sentative character  of  the  Christian  j)riesthoocl  ? 

No  doubt,  however,  as  all  the  best  things  are 
most  liable  to  corruption,  so  there  is  a  reality 
corresponding  to  what  is  denounced  as  ecclesias- 
tical exclusiveness  and  sacerdotal  pride.  It  is  in 
view  of  this  that  the  Rev.  E.  F.  Russell,  of  St. 
Alban's,  Holborn,  after  speaking  of  the  late  well- 
known  vicar  of  that  Church  as  one  of  those  who 
"  to  some  extent  at  least,  have  realized  in  their 
own  person  those  revived  ideals  of  the  priesthood, 
its  supernatural  character,  mission,  and  endowment, 
which  are  filling  the  hearts  and  firing  the  zeal  of 
so  many  of  the  new  generation  of  our  clergy  "  — 
adds  the  Avords,  "  Ideals  of  any  sort  are  dangerous 
visitants  to  vain  and  shallow  minds.  In  the  thin 
soil  of  a  poor  nature  they  bear  ugly  fruit  in  arro- 
gance, or  insolent  pretentiousness.  It  is  not  to  be 
denied  that  instances  of  this  'bringing  forth  of 
wild  grapes '  ai-e  not  unknown  amongst  us.  But  it 
is  far  otherwise  in  the  case  of  those  loftier,  nobler 
souls,  Avhich,  thank  God,  are  also  to  be  found  in 
our  ranks.  Upon  them  the  dignity  of  the  sacer- 
dotal character,  the  glory  of  a  divine  trust  for  the 
good  of  human  life,  weighs  with  the  oppression  of 
an  almost  unbearable  responsibility.     They  find  in 


VIU  PREFACE 

it  a  ground,  not  for  self-exaltation  or  self-assertion, 
but  rather  for  the  deepest  self-humiliation.  They 
are  filled  with  concern  how  they  may  make  good 
its  requirements.  A  sense  of  shortcoming  haunts 
them.  The  vision  of  what  should  be  prevents  all 
satisfaction  in  that  which  is.  Hence  the  feature 
common  to  the  saintliest  among  the  clergy,  every- 
where and  in  all  times,  of  a  merciless  self-efface- 
ment and  self-sacrifice,  and,  by  natural  consequence, 
an  especial  devotion  to  the  cross  of  Christ. "  ^ 

In  fact,  in  j^i'opf^i'tion  as  Ave  believe  in  our 
priesthood,  we  believe  that  we  must  live  and  die 
for  men ;  nay  more,  that  we  must  represent  men, 
represent  what  is  good  even  in  the  least  enlightened 
aspirations  of  people  about  us.  This  ideal  is  not 
one  which,  honestly  pursued,  will  minister  to  any- 
thing else  than  humility  and  sympathy.  For  to 
understand  men  we  must  learn  to  honour  them, 
and  this  is  only  possible  to  humility  and  self-efface- 
ment. 

I  have  enunciated  principles  in  this  book  which 
I  have  endeavoured  to  justify  at  length  elsewhere. 
Thus  the  ecclesiastical  principle,  and  the  principle 
of  the  apostolic  succession  asserted  in  Lecture  I,  I 
have  vindicated  at  length  in  The  Church  and  the 
Ministry   (Longmans) :   the  Anglican   position   as 

1  Alexander  Heriot  Mackonochit  (Kegaii  Paul,  1890),  p.  ix. 


PREFACE  IX 

against  Rome,  also  asserted  in  Lecture  I,  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Claims  (Longmans,  see  3rcl  or 
4th  edit.)  :  the  orthodox  position  as  against  de- 
structive criticism,  asserted  in  Lecture  III,  in  the 
Bampton  Lectures  of  1891  (John  Murray) :  the 
position  of  freedom  \Yithin  the  Church  in  regard 
to  many  points  raised  by  the  criticism  of  the  Old 
Testament,  also  asserted  in  Lecture  III,  in  the 
Essay  on  "The  Holy  Spirit  and  Inspiration,"  in 
Lux  Mundi  and  in  the  Preface  to  the  10th  edition 
(John  Murray).  I  must  express  a  hope  that  if 
anj^one  wishes  to  criticize  opinions  which  I  have 
expressed  on  these  subjects  in  the  following  pages, 
he  will  remember  that  they  are  justified  at  greater 

lengfth  elsewhere. 

C.  G. 

Michaelmas,  1892, 


CONTENTS 


LECTURE   I 

PAGE 

The  Mission  of  the  Church 1 


LECTURE   II 

UXITY   WITHIN    THE    ChURCH    OF    ENGLAND     ...         29 

LECTURE   ni 

The  Relation  of  the  Church  to  Independent  and 

Hostile  Opinion 58 

LECTURE   IV 
The  Mission  of  the  Church  in  Society         .       .       85 

APPENDED   XOTES 

1,  The  witness  to  the  doctrine  of  a  visible  Church 

IX  Clement  and  Ignatius Ill 

2.  The  recent  charge  of  Archdeacon  Sinclair    =        .111 

3,  The  necessity  of  sacraments  not  absolute      .        .      114 

4.  Irenaeus  on  the  elements  of  the  Christian  Religion      115 

xi 


Xll  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

5.  The  contents  of  the  New  Testament  tradition  .  115 

0.  The  Anglican  doctrine  of  the  sacraments    .        .  11(5 

7.  The  Anglican  requirement  of  the  apostolic  suc- 

cession           116 

8.  The  meaning  of  the  word  "spiritual"    .        .        .117 

9.  Gnostic  esotericism  and  Christian  universality  .  117 

10.  Tertullian  on  the  simplicity  of  Christian  sacra- 

ments             118 

11.  Goethe  on  the  sacramental  system           .        .        .  118 

12.  That   Christians   have  no  need  to  ask  for  the 

Spirit 119 

13.  Infants  who  are  proper  subjects  of  baptism        .  119 

14.  Science  cannot  proceed  without  assumptions        .  121 

15.  Evolution  and  its  relation  t©  Religious  Thought  121 

16.  The  resolutions  of  the  Pan-Anglican  Conference 

ON  Divorce 122 

17.  Christ  our  example  and  our  inward  life       .        .  123 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH 


LECTURE   I 

THE   MISSION  OF   THE   CHURCH 

"As  my  Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you." 

—  St.  John  XX.  21. 

Reverend  Father  in  God,  my  brethren  of  the 
clergy  and  of  the  laity,  —  If  it  be  true,  as  a  general 
rule,  that  the  fault  to  which  the  Church  in  agri- 
cultural districts  is  specially  liable  is  the  fault  of 
apathy  and  indolence,  yet  it  is,  I  suppose,  pro- 
foundly improbable  that  such  would  be  at  all  the 
danger  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Wales  under 
present  circumstances.  Whatever  else  may  be  the 
effect  of  the  agitation  of  past  years  and  of  the 
present  moment  round  the  walls  of  your  spiritual 
building,  it  must  at  least  have  the  effect  of  putting 
you  upon  your  mettle.  It  must  substitute  for  any 
tendency  to  indolence  or  apathy  a  condition  of 
excitement,  with  what  is  good  and  what  is  bad  in 
excitement.  Thus  we  hear  round  about  us  to-day 
the  note  of  encouragement ;  and  we  hear  the  note 
of  fear,  the  presage  of  disaster :  —  the  note  of 
encouragement,  because  of  the  real  progress  of  the 
Church  in  recent  years,  the  note  of  fear,  because 

I 


2  THE    MISSION    OF   THE   CHUKCH 

SO  much  is  still  lacking,  the  ground  still  to  be 
made  up  is  so  vast,  the  dangers  which  threaten  us 
are  so  alarming.  We  may  have  been  reminded  of 
our  own  mingled  atmosphere  of  grief  and  joy  by 
the  lesson  from  Ezra  which  we  read  but  a  few  days 
ago  describing  the  state  of  things  in  Jerusalem 
when  the  builders  after  the  captivity  had  "laid 
again  the  foundation  of  the  temple  of  the  Lord  "  ^ : 
—  "  All  the  people  shouted  with  a  great  shout  when 
they  praised  the  Lord,  because  the  foundation  of 
the  house  of  the  Lord  Avas  laid.  But  many  of  the 
priests  and  Levites  and  chief  of  the  fathers,  who 
Avere  ancient  men,  that  had  seen  the  first  house, 
when  the  foundation  of  this  house  was  laid  before 
their  eyes,  wept  with  a  loud  voice  ;  and  many 
shouted  aloud  for  joy :  so  that  the  people  could 
not  discern  the  noise  of  the  shout  of  joy  from  the 
noise  of  the  weeping  of  the  people." 

Now,  in  times  of  excitement,  if  we  would  be 
spiritually-minded,  we  have  one  supreme  and  para- 
mount obligation  —  it  is  that  of  recalling  ourselves 
again  and  again,  awa}'  from  the  cry  of  the  religious 
or  political  platform,  to  first  principles,  those  first 
principles  in  the  light  of  which  our  true  life  must 
be  lived.  What  do  we  mean  by  being  Church- 
men? What  is  the  Divine  mission  of  the  Church?. 
What  is  the  ground  of  our  imperishable  confi- 
dence ?  It  is  —  "As  my  Father  hath  sent  me, 
even  so  send  I  you." 

1  Ezra  iii.  11-13. 


THE    MISSION   OF   THE   CHUIiCH 


This  is,  in  its  ultimate  terms,  the  mission  of  "^  ^  ^ 
the  Church.  It  is  the  carrying  out,  in  its  f nil  ^'^  '  I- 
scope,  of  the  mission  of  the  Christ :  "  As  my 
Father  hath  sent  me."  God  has  given  us  a  revela- 
tion of  Himself  in  His  incarnate  Son ;  and  this 
revelation  or  disclosure  of  God  in  Christ  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  threefold  office  of  Christ  as  prophet, 
priest,  and  king. 

As  prophet  He  not  merely  conveys  to  man  a 
particular  message  about  God,  but  He  discloses 
God  under  conditions  of  our  humanity.  He  is 
very  God,  Son  of  God;  and,  being  God,  He  dis- 
closes in  the  intelligible  terms  of  our  humanity 
what  God  is.  We  look  to  the  human  mind  and 
will  and  character,  the  human  justice  and  love,  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  we  know  that  we  behold 
nothing  else  than  the  mind  and  will  and  character, 
the  justice  and  love,  of  very  God.  Moreover  what 
is  revealed  is  not  merely  the  mind  or  purpose 
of  God  towards  men ;  but,  within  certain  limits, 
there  is  a  real  disclosure  of  His  inner  being,  of 
those  inner  relations  which  bind  altogether  in  the 
indissoluble  unity  of  Godhead,  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  H0I3'  Ghost.  Christ  is  prophet,  then,  and 
discloses  God  to  man ;  but  He  is  also  priest,  to 
unite  or  reconcile  man  to  God.  In  this  capacity 
He  first  exhibits,  in  supreme  perfection  and  ful- 
ness, that  unity  with  God  of  which  our  nature  is 


4  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

capable.  In  His  own  person  He  represents  the 
perfect  attitude  of  man  to  God.  In  His  own  per- 
son He  offers,  in  our  name  and  on  our  behalf,  the 
sacrifice  of  perfect  homage  to  the  divine  righteous- 
ness, Avhich  our  sins  had  been  continuously  out- 
raging. All  this  He  does  first  in  His  own  person 
independently  of  us  and  in  our  stead;  but  what 
He  first  does  for  us,  He  proceeds  to  do  in  us.  He 
takes  us  up  into  union  with  Himself.  We  share 
His  manhood.  His  communion  with  God,  His  self- 
oblation  to  the  Father.  Thus  He  is  our  priest. 
Thirdly,  He  is  king;  because  He  comes  forth  to 
make  His  moral  claim  felt  upon  our  manhood :  to 
redeem  and  to  liberate  it,  to  subdue  and  to  govern 
it,  in  all  its  parts  and  faculties.  Thus  He  is 
prophet,  priest,  and  king ;  and,  as  His  Father 
hath  sent  Him  on  this  prophetic,  priestly,  kingly 
mission,  so  in  His  turn  in  the  persons  of  His  apos- 
tles He  sends  out  His  Church.  "As  my  Father 
hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you." 

The  Church  perpetuates  the  mission  of  her  Mas- 
ter— ^  prophetic,  priestly,  kingly. 

She  perpetuates  the  prophetic  mission  of  Christ, 
because  she  carries  down  through  the  ages,  as  its 
pillar  and  ground,  the  truth  which  once  for  all  was 
disclosed  in  Jesus,  the  truth  involved  in  His  per- 
son, God  and  man;  the  truth  about  God,  which 
He  disclosed  in  His  life.  His  works.  His  words ; 
the  truth  about  man,  his  destiny,  his  capacity,  and 
the  sin  which  has  marred  his  destiny,  and  sepa- 
rated him  from  God ;  and  the  truth  about  redemp- 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH  5 

tion,  the  redemption  wrought  out  by  (tocI  in  Christ. 
This  trutli  involved  in  the  person  of  our  redeemer, 
Jesus,  it  is  the  prophetic  office  of  the  Church  per- 
petually to  bear  witness  to,  to  place  continuously 
before  the  eyes  of  men,  to  inculcate  again  and 
again  in  its  varied  adaptation  to  the  different 
needs  of  different  ages.  Again,  the  Church  goes 
forth  to  perpetuate  the  priestly  mission  of  Christ. 
For  the  work  of  Christ  is  not  perpetuated  merely 
in  words;  there  is  more  to  be  done  than  teaching. 
"The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  in  word  but  in 
power."  There  is  the  gift  of  grace,  the  gift  of 
the  Spirit,  and  manifold  gifts  from  the  Spirit  in 
view  of  man's  manifold  needs;  and  the  Church  is 
the  home  in  which  this  rich  treasure  is  dispensed, 
the  household  of  God  in  which  is  distributed  the 
bread  of  life,  a  portion  to  each  in  due  season.  It 
is  by  the  ministration  of  these  manifold  gifts  of 
grace  that  our  humanity  is  raised  again  into  its 
true  relation  to  God,  and  brought  back  into  union 
with  Him.  And  the  Church  shares  also  Christ's 
kingly  function.  The  pastoral  office  is  at  least 
as  much  an  office  of  ruling  as  of  feeding.  The 
Church  is  to  discipline,  to  guide,  to  strengthen, 
the  manifold  characters,  wills  and  minds  of  men, 
till  this  human  life  of  ours  is  brought,  in  all  its 
parts  and  capacities,  into  the  obedience  of  Christ. 
Thus  the  Church  perpetuates  the  threefold  mis- 
sion of  the  Christ.  "  As  my  Father  hath  sent  me 
prophetic,  priestly,  kingly,  so  send  I  you,  pro- 
phetic, priestly,  kingly." 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHUKCH 


II 

Now  tbe  point  which,  at  this  stage,  I  wish  to 
emphasize  is  that  Christ  has  thus  enshrined  in  a 
visible  body,  a  visible  Church,  those  gifts  of  truth 
and  grace  with  which  He  has  enriched  mankind. 

Another  method  might  have  been  adopted.  It 
is  conceivable  that  our  Lord  might  have  pro- 
claimed a  certain  body  of  truth,  and  then  left  it 
to  make  its  own  way,  to  advance  by  its  own  weight 
among  mankind.  He  might  have  scattered  trutb 
at  random,  like  "bread  upon  the  waters,"  over  the 
area  of  human  need.  But  in  fact  He  did  some- 
thing different.  He  enshrined  the  truth  deliberately 
in  an  organized  society;  and  it  is,  we  believe,  in 
accordance  with  the  mind  of  Christ  that  the  Church 
has  in  fact  gone  out  into  the  world  as  a  society 
based  upon  a  distinctive  creed,  a  creed  gradually 
enshrined  in  formulas  and  appealing  to  a  fixed 
canon  of  sacred  scriptures,  representing  the  origi- 
nal teaching  of  Christ's  Apostles. 

Once  more,  the  gifts  of  grace  are  made  part  of  a 
visible  system  through  the  ministry  of  sacraments. 
What  are  sacraments  ?  They  are  outward,  visible 
and  also  social,  ceremonies  intended  for  the  con- 
veyance of  spiritual  gifts.  There  is  the  gift  of 
regeneration,  the  gift  of  the  indwelling  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  the  gift  of  the  bread  of  life,  the  flesh 
and  blood  of  Christ.  Now  these  are  spiritual 
gifts,  and  we  can  conceive  of  their  having  been 


THE  MISSION  OF  THE   CHURCH  7 

given  through  purely  invisible  channels ;  in  fact, 
they  are  given  b}^  channels  which,  as  I  say,  are 
not  only  visible,  but  also  social.  Baptism,  through 
which  is  conveyed  the  Spirit's  gift  of  regeneration 
or  incorporation  into  Christ,  is  an  outward  cere- 
mony, and  an  outward  ceremony  which,  at  the 
same  time,  is  social.  It  is  a  ceremony  of  admis- 
sion into  a  visible  society.  Confirmation,  by 
which  is  bestowed  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  is  an  act  of  benediction,  the  laying  on  of 
the  hands  of  the  chief  ruler  of  a  society  upon  one 
of  its  members.  The  Eucharist  again,  in  which 
is  given  and  taken  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
is  an  outAvard  ceremony,  and  a  ceremony  which, 
in  its  material  basis,  involves  a  fraternal  meal. 
Each  of  the  sacraments  is  not  only  a  visible  but 
also  a  social  institution;  such  as  involves  that 
men  are  to  be  admitted  into,  and  kept  in  relation 
to,  a  visible  society. 

Once  again  this  society  is  not  only  to  be  a 
visible  reality  at  any  particular  moment.  It  is 
also  to  be  continuous  down  the  ages.  It  is  in 
view  of  this  need  that  the  meaning  of  the  apostolic 
succession  of  the  ministry  becomes  apparent.  For 
the  Church  is  a  catholic  society,  that  is,  a  society 
belonging  to  all  nations  and  ages.  As  a  catholic 
society  it  lacks  the  bonds  of  the  life  of  a  city 
or  a  nation  —  local  contiguity,  common  language, 
common  customs.  We  cannot,  then,  very  well 
conceive  how  its  corporate  continuity  could  have 
been  maintained  otherwise  than  through  some  sue- 


8  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

cession  of  persons  such  as,  bearing  the  apostolic 
commission  for  ministry,  shoukl  be  in  each  gener- 
ation the  necessary  centres  of  the  Church's  life. 
Granted  this  apostolic  succession,  there  is  guar- 
anteed in  the  Church  as  a  whole,  and  in  each  local 
church,  a  perpetual  stewardship  of  the  grace  and 
truth  which  came  by  Jesus  Christ,  a  perpetual 
stewardship  which,  at  the  same  time,  acts  as  the 
link  of  continuity,  binding  the  churches  of  all 
ages  and  of  all  nations  into  visible  unity  with  the 
apostolic  college. 

Thus  by  her  creeds  and  her  canon  of  scriptures, 
by  her  sacraments  and  her  apostolic  succession, 
the  Church  is  rendered  necessarily  a  visible  body. 
It  is  spiritual  in  its  aim.  It  exists  for  no  other 
purpose  than  to  minister  to  the  spiritual  union  of 
man  with  God.  It  is  spiritual  in  its  aim  and 
essence,  but  it  is  visible  in  fact  on  earth.  The 
invisible  gift  is  conveyed  through  visible  channels : 
the  invisible  essence  is  enshrined  in  a  visible 
body. 

Of  this  doctrine  of  the  visible  Church  we  may 
say  that  it  is  first  natural  and  second  historical. 
Its  intimate  correspondence  with  the  principle  of 
the  Incarnation  we  shall  have  the  opportunity  of 
noticing  in  the  next  lecture. 

First  it  is  natural:  it  corresponds  to  a  law  of 
our  nature.  Aristotle  said  long  ago  that  man  is  a 
"social  animal."  The  meaning  of  this  is  that 
though  society  is  made  up  of  individuals,  and 
indeed  the  aim  of  society  is  the  development  of 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH  \) 

the  faculties  of  the  individual,  yet  man  realizes 
Ids  individuality  only  l)y  relations  to  a  society. 
It  is  the  society  that  makes  him  man,  it  is  the 
social  life  of  the  nation  or  the  city  that  enables 
the  individual  to  become  truly  human. 

The  moral  philosophy  of  the  last,  and  of  the 
early  part  of  the  present  century  was  characterized 
by  individualistic  theories,  according  to  Avhich 
men  were  regarded  as  primarily  individuals  and 
only  secondarily  as  members  of  society.  But  it 
is  noticeable  that  modern  ethical  writers,  even  of 
a  non-theistic  school,  such  as  Mr.  Leslie  Stephen 
and  Mr.  Alexander,  exhibit  a  return  to  the  Aris- 
totelian principle.  "  We  must  take  society  and 
the  individual  as  we  find  them  in  fact,"  says  Mr. 
Alexander,  "the  latter  with  ties  that  bind  him  to 
others,  the  former  as  something  which  we  have 
never  known  to  be  formed  by  the  mere  coalescence 
of  separate  and  independent  individuals."  ^  It  is, 
then,  in  correspondence  with  a  fundamental  law 
of  man's  social  nature  that  the  religion  of  the  Son  ■ 
of  Man  should  not  deal  with  us  first  as  isolated 
individuals;  that  it  should  present  itself  as  a 
society  incorporating  individuals  and  developing 
the  individual  life  by  first  absorbing  it.  It  is 
because  man  is  social  that  "the  perfect  man  " ^  is 
to  be  realized,  not  by  the  single  Christian,  but  by 
the  whole  Church. 

Secondly,  this  theory  of  the  Church  is  historical 

1  Alexander,  Moral  Order  and   Progress    (Triibner,  1889), 
p.  96.  •-'  Eph.  iv.  rP>  [K.V.]. 


10  THE   INIISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

—  the  title-deeds  of  Christianity  establish  it.  His- 
torical proof  is  a  long  matter.  It  cannot  be  given 
fully  in  a  single  lecture,  but  I  may  refer  to  one  or 
two  chief  elements  in  it. 

1.  The  method  of  Christ.  We  can  conceive,  as 
I  have  said,  easily  enough  how  our  Lord  might 
have  cast  the  truth  which  He  came  to  teach  man- 
kind broadcast  over  society,  and  left  it  to  make 
its  own  way.  But  the  more  3^ou  examine  the 
gospels,  the  more  you  will  note  that  His  method 
Avas  not  in  fact  this,  but  the  opposite.  More  and 
more  He  concentrates  all  His  efforts  upon  that 
little  band  beside  Him,  whom  by  steady  discipline 
He  was  preparing  to  be  the  nucleus  of  His  new 
and  distinctive  society.  On  this  vigil  of  St. 
Peter's  Day,  w^e  naturally  notice  this  more  par- 
ticularly: He  turned  away  from  our  human  nature 
as  He  found  it,  unsatisfactory  and  inadequate, 
when  He  wished  to  lay  His  new  foundation.  "  He 
did  not  commit  himself  to  men  .  .  .  for  he  knew 
what  was  in  man."  Those  faults  in  our  human 
nature,  which  in  every  generation  have  turned 
philanthropists  into  cynics,  and  driven  the  wisest 
wellnigh  mad  —  that  unsatisfactoriness  of  our 
fallen  manhood  —  Jesus  knew  from  the  first. 
Therefore  He  waited.  He  laboured,  He  prayed  in 
our  true  manhood  till  He  had  prepared  the  soil 
wdiich  should  be  adequate  for  the  seed  He  meant 
to  sow  in  it ;  till  He  had  found  a  foundation,  not 
like  the  shifting  sand  of  ordinary  fallen  manhood, 
but  strono"  and  rock-like,  on  wdiich  He  could  build; 


THI-:   MrSSION    OF   THE   CHCTRCH  11 

and  tills  rock-like  cliaracter  our  human  nature  wns 
to  gain  only  through  faith  in  Himself  complete 
and  entire.  Thus,  when  He  had  gained  from  the 
lips  of  St.  Peter  an  adequate  confession  of  His  ' 
name,  a  confession  different  altogether  from  the 
vague  and  shifting  ideas  about  Himself  which 
were  current  among  the  people  generally,  then  it 
was  that  He  could  make  a  beginning  with  his  \ 
new  spiritual  structure.  He  turned  to  Peter,  the 
representative  of  the  new  confession,  and  said,  | 
"Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Bar-Jonah;  for  flesh 
and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven.  And  I  also  sa}^  unto 
thee,  that  thou  art  Peter  —  Rockman  —  and  upon 
this  rock  I  will  build  my  church,  and  the  gates  of 
death  shall  not  prevail  against  it."^  We  know 
the  subsequent  history.  The  faith  of  Peter  was 
shared  by  the  apostolic  college,  and  the  promise  to 
Peter  was,  as  the  Christian  fathers  perceived,  ful- 
filled to  the  whole  apostolic  company  in  their  com-  /' 
mon  commission:  "As  my  Father  hath  sent  me, 
even  so  send  I  you."  And  the  meaning  of  this 
whole  history  is,  that  Jesus  did,  with  all  deliber- 
ation, establish  a  distinct  society  to  represent  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  a  society  distinct  from 
humanity  at  large,  based  upon  the  explicit  con-| 
fession  of  His  name.  Consider  further  the  method 
of  Christ,  the  institution  of  social  sacraments, 
baptism  and  the  eucharist,  and  you  will  find  that 

1  St.  Matt.  xvi.  17,  18.     Cf.  Holland's  Creed  and  Character, 
Serm.  III.  "The  Rock  of  the  Church"  (Longmans). 


12  THE   MISSION   OF    THE   CHURCH 

it  becomes  to  your  mind  a  more  and  more  luminous 
truth,  that  our  Lord  was  constituting,  to  last  till 
He  should  "come  again,"  one  visible  fraternity, 
the  company  of  His  "elect"  in  which  to  enshrine 
the  spiritual  life  Avhich  was  to  have  its  source  in 
Himself. 

2.  Now  let  us  read,  from  this  point  of  view,  the 
apostolic  writing ;  and  we  shall  notice  with  what 
clearness  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  appears  in 
history  as  a  visible  society,  and  nothing  else  than 
a  visible  society.  Its  story  is  told  simply  enough 
in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles.  In  that  book  being 
a  Christian,  means  nothing  else  than  membership 
in  the  visible  body,  the  Church.  The  Church 
advances  from  place  to  place,  but  the  local  bodies, 
"the  churches,"  are  the  expansions  of  "the 
Church  "1 — based  upon  the  "apostles'  doctrine," 
continuing  in  the  "apostles'  fellowship,"  and. 
governed  by  the  common  apostolic  authority.^ 
The  same  truth  is  apparent  in  St.  Paul's  epistles 
— ^not  only  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  or  in 
the  Pastoral  Epistles  in  which  he  is  specially 
making  provision  for  the  Church's  future  in  view 
of  his  OAvn  death,  but  also  in  an  epistle  of  an  ear- 
lier period.  Observe  in  the  First  Epistle  to  Cor- 
inth, where  St.  Paul  is  dealing  with  the  lament- 
able case  of  incest  in  the  young  church  there,  how 
instinctively  clear  to  his  mind  is  the  distinction 
between   "those  within"  and    "those  without."^ 

1  Acts  ix.  ol  ;  xi.  2«)  ;  xiii.  1  ;  xv.  41  ;  xvi.  5. 

2  Acts  XV.  28.  3  1  Cor.  v.  9-13. 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH  13 

Christianity  is  not  a  set  of  opinions  which  people/^ 
may  hold,   as  in  fact  people  in  India  to-day  do  (^^/l^^  ^ 
hold,  inore  or  less,  the  truth  about  Christ  over  a  ^  /ft^,' ,'' 
wide  area  of  Hindoo  society.     To  be  a  Christian, 
means  to  be  Avithin  that  apostolic  society,  which' 
was  made  up  of  good  and  evil  mingled  together, 
ns    this    incestuous    man,    and   those   aiding   and 
abetting  him,  were  as  tares  among  the  wheat,   in 
the  young  community  at  Corinth. 

3.  Let  us  pass  to  the  sub-apostolic  Church. 
We  should  all  of  us  make  ourselves  familiar  with 
those  very  short  writings,  the  Epistle  of  Clement 
and  the  Epistles  of  Ignatius.  The  Epistle  of 
Clement  was  written  about  the  same  time  as  St. 
John's  Gospel,  in  the  West,  at  Rome.  It  comes, 
then,  from  under  the  immediate  shadow  of  apos- 
tolic influence  and  teaching;  yet  notice  how 
unquestionably  this  doctrine  of  the  visible  Church 
is  its  characteristic  mark.  There  is  no  conception 
of  Christianity  there  discoverable,  except  this  con- 
ception of  an  actual  society,  with  its  divinely 
established  order  and  its  officers  commissioned  by 
apostolic  authority.^ 

You  turn  from  the  West,  from  Clement,  from 
the  influence  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  to  Igna- 
tius, in  the  East,  to  the  sphere  of  the  influence  of 
St.  John,  and  still  you  find  the  same  thing.  Read 
the  letters  of  Ignatius  the  martyr,  written  about 
A.D.  110,  on  his  way  to  death.  He  is  hard  pressed 
to  deliver  his  message  to  the  churches  before  he  is 
1  See  appended  note  1. 


14  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

taken  away.  And  the  central  interest  of  his  mes- 
sage is  twofokl.  It  lies  first  in  the  paramount 
necessity  which  lie  discovers  in  the  truth  of  the 
Incarnation,  that  Christ,  the  very  Son  of  God,  did 
really  take  our  liuman  nature ;  and  secondly  in  his 
insistence  upon  the  truth  that  God's  message  to 
man  is  enshrined  in  those  visible  societies  which 
have  for  their  ministers  bishops,  priests,  and  dea- 
cons, "  without  which  three  orders  no  Church  has 
a  title  to  the  name."  ^ 

4.  As  we  move  down  the  record  of  history  we 
find  the  Church  in  different  parts  of  the  world 
assuming  different  characteristics.  In  the  West, 
where  the  Roman  genius  prevails,  the  special 
characteristic  is  that  of  order  and  discipline.  In 
Alexandria  Christianity  is  regarded  primarily  as 
the  truth,  which  is  to  attract,  to  satisfy,  to  edu- 
cate, the  intellect  and  life  of  man.  But  this 
variety  in  the  local  characteristics  of  churches 
only  throws  into  higher  relief  the  common  under- 
lying creed  and  conception  of  the  visible  Church. 
In  regard  to  the  Church,  its  sacraments,  its  min- 
istry, there  is  no  hesitation.  The  idea  of  a  num- 
ber of  individuals  combining  to  form  a  church  of 
their  own  with  an  oi'ganization  developed  out  of 
themselves  is  one  wdiich,  if  heard  of  at  all,  as 
among  the  Montanists,  is  heard  of  only  to  be 
repudiated.  Of  the  common  doctrine  of  the 
Church  I  will  quote  only  one  specimen,  and  it 
shall  be  from  Tertullian  —  a  passage  in  which  he 
1  Ii;ii.  ad  Trail  3,  Liglitfoot's  trans. 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE  CHUKCH  15 

declares  that,  whatever  doctrine  may  be  matter  of 
dispute,  this  at  least  cannot  be.  "Christ  Jesus, 
our  Lord,''  he  says,^  "so  long  as  He  was  living 
on  earth,  spoke  Himself  either  openly  to  the  peo- 
ple, or  apart  to  His  disciples.  From  amongst 
these  He  had  attached  to  His  person  twelve 
especially,  who  were  destined  to  be  the  teachers 
of  the  nations.  Accordingly,  Avhen  one  of  these 
had  fallen  away,  the  remaining  eleven  received 
His  command,  as  He  was  departing  to  the  Father, 
after  His  resurrection,  to  go  and  teach  the  nations, 
who  were  to  be  baptized  into  the  Father,  and  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit.  At  once,  then,  the 
Apostles,  whose  mission  this  title  indicates,  after 
adding  Matthias  to  their  number,  as  the  twelfth, 
in  the  place  of  Judas,  on  the  authority  of  the 
prophecy  in  David's  Psalm,  and  after  receiving 
the  promised  strength  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  enable 
them  to  work  miracles  and  preach,  first  of  all  bore 
witness  to  the  faith  in  Judaea  and  established 
churches,  and  afterwards,  going  out  into  the 
world,  proclaimed  the  same  teaching  of  the  same 
faith  to  the  nations,  and  forthwith  founded 
churches  in  every  city,  from  which  all  other 
churches  in  their  turn  have  received  the  tradition 
of  the  faith  and  the  seeds  of  doctrine ;  yes,  and  are 
daily  receiving,  that  they  may  become  churches; 
and  it  is  on  this  account  that  they  too  will  be 
reckoned  apostolic,  as  being  the  offspring  of  apos- 
tolic churches.  Every  kind  of  thing  must  be 
1  Tertull.  de  praescr.  20. 


16  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

referred  to  its  origin.  Accorclingl}',  many  and 
great  as  are  the  churches,  yet  all  is  that  one  first 
Church  which  is  from  the  Apostles,  that  one 
whence  all  are  derived.  So  all  are  the  first,  and 
all  are  apostolic,  while  all  together  prove  their 
unity;  Avhile  the  fellowship  of  peace,  and  the  title 
of  brotherhood,  and  the  interchange  of  hospitality 
remain  amongst  them  —  rites  which  are  based  on 
no  other  principle  than  the  one  handing  down  of 
the  same  faith." 


Ill 

"I  believe  in  one  Holy  Catholic  Church." 
This  act  of  faith  puts  us  in  opposition  to  current 
"undenominationalism,"  and,  as  we  hold  it  in  the 
Anglican  Church,  to  the  exclusive  claim  of  the 
Roman  communion.  Both  oppositions  must  be 
briefly  considered. 

Undenominationalism.  By  this  name  I  refer  to 
the  theory  which  represents  men  as  first  becoming 
Christians  by  an  act  of  individual  faith,  and, 
after  that,  combining  into  Christian  societies, 
greater  or  smaller,  as  suits  their  predilections. ^ 
This,  you  observe,  is  the  opposite  of  the  theory 
that  men  become  Christians,  in  the  first  instance, 
by  incorporation  into  the  one  Christian  society, 
and  then,  after  that,  are  bound  to  realize  individ- 
ually their  Christian  privileges.  This  second 
theory,  if  what  I  have  been  saying  is  true,  is  the 
1  See  app.  note  2. 


THE   MISSION    OF    THE   CHURCH  17 

one  which  alone  is  sanctioned  in  the  original 
documents  of  Christianity.  Whether  it  seems 
therefore  at  any  particular  moment  advantageous 
or  disadvantageous  —  in  any  case  we  are  not  re- 
sponsible for  it.  It  is  part  of  that  which  comes 
to  us  from  Jesus  Christ  our  Master;  but  yet  the 
objections  to  it  on  the  undenominational  side  are 
sufficiently  clear  to  demand  that  we  should  con- 
sider Avhat  they  mean. 

"  This  doctrine  of  the  Church  seems  reasonable 
enough,  as  you  state  it,"  people  say,  "and  we 
recognize  the  strength  of  its  appeal  to  the  New 
Testament  and  primitive  Christian  traditions. 
But  if  it  comes  seriously  to  believing  it,  one 
must  ask.  Is  it  not  in  too  manifest  conflict  with 
facts  ?  This  suggestion  of  exclusive  channels  of 
grace,  does  it  square  Avith  facts,  with  the  wide 
and  promiscuous  diffusion  of  spiritual  excellence 
as  the  record  of  history  and  the  experience  of  life 
present  it?  Nay!  I  must  have  a  freer  theory. 
Verily,  'the  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth '  — 
so  is  the  movement  of  the  free  Spirit." 

Ah,  yes !  who  could  deny  it?  The  Spirit  breatheth 
where  He  listeth.  All  life  is  His  in  nature  and  in 
man.  There  is  no  being  which  lies  outside  the  action 
of  the  eternal  Word  or  His  Spirit.  Every  move- 
ment of  good  in  man  anywhere  is  of  His  breathing. 
Everywhere,  under  His  inspiration,  men  are  seek- 
ing after  God,  "  if  haply  they  may  feel  after  Him 
and  find  Him,"  and  "in  ever}^  nation  he  that 
feareth  God  and  worketh  righteousness,"  feareth 


18  THE   MISSION    OF    THE    CHURCH 

and  worketh  with  the  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and 
in  Him  is  accepted  of  God.  Thus,  though  in 
Hooker's  words, ^  "It  is  not  ordinarily  God's  will 
to  bestow  the  grace  of  sacraments  on  any,  but  by 
the  sacraments " ;  yet  God  is  not  tied  to  any 
special  channels.  There  are  no  such  things  aj 
exclusive  means  of  grace,  means  of  grace  as  to 
which  one  can  say,  "  God  worketh  here,  not 
elsewhere."  But  this,  after  all,  is  no  novel  con- 
cession. "Deus  non  alligatur  sacramentis  suis," 
it  was  said  of  old.  "  His  ordinances  are  laws  for 
us,  not  for  Him."^  In  all  ages  thoughtful  theolo- 
gians of  almost  all  schools  have  seen  that  this 
truth  is  involved  in  the  recognition  of  the  father- 
hood of  God,  and  His  all-rectifying  and  impartial 
justice.  But  then,  the  rejoinder  comes,  what  is 
it  you  claim  for  the  sacraments?  Just  what  is 
involved  in  the  idea  of  "covenant,"  and  in  the 
idea  of  "  the  household "  of  God.  The  state  of 
covenant  carries  us  into  a  region  beyond  that  of 
dim  and  anxious  seeking.  It  involves  a  clear  dis- 
closure of  Himself  by  God,  and,  corresponding 
with  this,  clear  and  distinct  bestowals  and  prom- 
ises of  grace.  A  household  is  a  place  where  food 
and  nurture  is  definitely  and  systematically  pro- 
vided. The  joy  of  Christians  is  the  joy  of  sons 
in  their  father's  household,  children  of  the  cove- 
nant. This  is  what  we  claim  for  sacraments :  not 
that  they  are  exclusive  channels  of  grace,  so  that 
God  cannot  give  except  through  them  the  gifts,  of 
1  E.  F.  V.  57.  4.  2  gee  app.  note  3. 


THE    MISSION    OF    THE    CHUKCH  19 

His  love;  but  that  through  tliem  only,  as  elements 
m  His-UiuqufiCDYeuaiitj  are  definite  gracesjjledged 
and  gj-uaranteed  by  the  Divine  fidelity;  so  that 
the  faithful  Christian  transcends  the  conditions  of 
anxious  enquiry  and  passes  into  the  region  where 
he  faithfully  Avelcomes  the  assured  gift,  and  fear- 
lessly uses  it  as  indeed  given. 

And  if  you  press  the  question  further,  and  ask, 
"Does  not  your  theory  of  the  security  of  the 
covenant  involve  the  conception  of  'valid  sacra- 
ments ' —  sacraments,  that  is,  that  are  only  valid 
when  they  are  celebrated  by  persons  properly 
ordained  in  the  due  transmission  of  apostolical 
authority?  and  does  not  this  theory  leave  out  of 
account  what  is,  at  least  in  Anglo-Saxon  Chris- 
tianity, an  immense  and  solid  part  of  the  working 
force  of  Christianity?"  —  I  answer,  AVe  must  hold 
to  this  doctrine  of  apostolic  succession  as  bound 
up  with  the  validity  of  some  at  least  of  the  sacra- 
ments. The  idea  of  an  ordained  stewardship  of 
divine  gifts  is  inseparably  associated  both  in  idea 
and  in  history  with  the  sacramental  system.  But 
what  is  meant  by  valid  sacraments?  The  Greek 
word  pejBaLo^^  and  the  Latin  word  "validus," 
have  a  definite  meaning.  The  opposite  of  secui^e 
or  valid  is  not  non-existeirt  but  precarious.  The 
fact  that  God  promises  to  give  in  one  way  does 
not  destroy  His  power  to  give  in  another.  It 
were  blaspheni}',  then,  to  deny  the  S[)irit's  action 
where  we  see  the  Spirit's  fruits.  It  is  impossible 
for  one  who  thinks  seriously  to  ignore  or  under- 


20  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

rate  the  vast  debt  wliicli  English  Christianity 
owes  to  nonconformist  bodies,  to  bodies  which 
have  fallen  quite  outside  the  action  of  the  apos- 
tolic ministry.  But  was  there  not  a  cause?  If 
we  consider  the  sins,  the  scandalous  neglect  and 
sluggishness  of  the  Church,  is  it  so  very  wonder- 
ful that  God  should  have  worked  largely  and 
freely  outside  the  appointed  and  authorized  min- 
istries? We  should  think  it  blasphemy,  then,  to 
deny  the  spiritual  experience  of  the  past  or  of  the 
present  as  to  the  freedom  of  the  divine  action, 
even  when  the  spiritual  experience  is  only  viewed 
from  outside.  Still  less  could  we  dream  of  asking 
any  one  who  is  not  himself  a  Churchman  to  be  false 
to  his  own  experience.  But  we  may  ask  men  to 
be  completely  true  to  the  whole  of  experience. 

NoAV  one  part  of  experience  is  surely  the  disas- 
trous present  effect  of  our  divisions.  No  serious 
Christian  can  fail  to  desire  most  earnestly  restored 
fellowship  among  Christians.  Something  is  so 
very  wrong  at  present  that  we  must  ask  over 
again,  and  more  and  more  as  circumstances  throw 
back  each  man  upon  first  principles.  What  is  the 
divinely  intended  basis  or  form  of  the  Christian 
religion?  And  the  answer  is  "by  one  Spirit  were 
we  all  baptized  into  one  body."  The  one  body — ■ 
you  view  it  in  history,  you  trace  it  back  to  apos- 
tolic da3^s  —  certainly  its  main  lineaments  are 
throughout  unmistakeable.  There  have  been 
many  partial  developments  and  causes  of  division, 
and  local  beliefs  and  changing  customs  and  laws. 


THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH  21 

But  there  is  the  one  tradition  of  the  faith  in  its 
central  features  constant  and  original:  there  arei 
the  apostolic  scriptures,  the  canon  of  which  grad-' 
ually  takes  the  place  of  the  living  authority  of 
apostolic  teachers,  as  the  ultimate  court  of  Chris- 
tian appeal :  there  is  the  system  of  the  sacraments  : 
there  is  the  apostolically  commissioned  ministry, 
with  its  stewardship  of  the  gifts  of  truth  and 
grace. ^  These,  as  parts  of  the  organism  of  the 
Spirit,  constitute  for  the  whole  of  the  first  fifteen 
centuries  the  fabric  of  Christianity.  Since  the 
Reformation  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  histori- 
cal enquiry  in  general,  and  in  our  own  days, 
biblical  criticism,  have  rendered  it  increasingly 
difficult  to  tear  the  Bible  out  of  the  structure  of 
the  Church,  out  of  the  organism  of  which  it  forms 
a  part.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  find  in  original 
Christianity  a  "  liberty  of  prophesying  "  which  left 
men  independent  of  the  visible  Church:  not  in 
apostolic  days,  if  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  the 
Pastoral  Epistles  and  the  Epistle  to  the  Corinth- 
ians are  true  witnesses :  not  in  later  days,  unless 
we  do  violence  to  the  existing  evidence  and  make 
of  Montanism  the  truly  conservative  movement. ^ 

In  regard  to  the  doctrine  of  apostolic  succession, 
I  must  say  one  other  word.     It  has  been,  in  his- 1 
tory,  too  much  identified  with  the  threefold  f orgi  I 
of  tjie  ministi:y.^     I  believe  myself  that  the  evi- 

1  See  app.  note  4. 

2  See  The  Church  and  the  Ministry,  pp.  207-213,  and  app. 
notes  H  and  I. 

3  See  further,  The  Church  and  the  Ministry,  pp.  72  ff. 


22  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

dence,  as  we  have  it  at  present,  points  cogently 
TO  this  conclusion :  that  since  apostolic  days  there 
liave  been  always  three  orders  of  the  ministry ;  not 
only  deacons  and  presbyters  (or  bishops  according 
to  the  earliest  use  of  the  term),  but  also  ministers 
of  the  apostolic  order,  superior  to  the  presbyters, 
such  as  Timoth3Mmd  Titus,  or  those  "prophets" 
of  whom  we  hear  in  the  earliest  Christian  litera- 
ture. I  believe  that  what  occurred  was  the  grad- 
ual localization  in  particular  churches  of  this 
apostolic  order  of  ministers  which  previously  had 
not  usually  been  so  localized,  and  that  there  was 
no  time  when  presbyters  or  presbyter  bishops  had 
either  the  supreme  authority  of  government  or  the 
power  to  ordain ;  the  change  which  took  place 
consisting  only  in  the  localization  of  an  order  of 
men  previously  exercising  a  more  general  super- 
vision, and  the  reservation  of  the  name  "bishop" 
to  these  localized  apostolic  officers. 

But  there  are  certain  facts  which  have  led  some 
good  authorities  to  suppose  that,  at  one  time,  all 
the  presbyters  in  some  churches  held  together  the 
chief  authority  in  government  and  the  power  to 
ordain,  the  "episcopate"  being  as  it  were  "in 
commission  "  among  them.  Now  this  theory  has, 
I  think,  from  the  point  of  view  of  ecclesiastical 
principle^  been  too  much  discussed.  It  does  not 
affect  the  principle  of  apostolic  succession  in  the 
least.  The  principle  is  that  no  man  in  the  Church 
can  validly  exercise  any  ministry,  except  such  as 
he  has  received  from  a  source  running  back  ulti- 


THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH  23 

mately  to  the  apostles,  so  that  any  ministry  which 
a  person  takes  upon  himself  to  exercise,  which  is 
not  covered  by  an  apostolically  received  commis- 
sion, is  invalid. 

Now,  if  the  order  of  presbyters  at  any  time  held 
the  right  to  ordain,  that  was  because  it  had  been 
entrusted  to  them  by  apostolic  men.  It  no  more 
disturbs  the  principle  of  apostolic  succession  than 
if  your  lordship  ordained  all  the  presbyters  in 
this  diocese  to-day  to  episcopal  functions.  There 
would  ensue  a  great  deal  of  inconvenience  and 
confusion,  but  nothing  that  would  violate  the 
principle  of  apostolical  succession.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  departure  from  this  principle  is  mani- 
fest when  presb3^ters  in  the  sixteenth  or  subse- 
quent century  took  upon  themselves  to  ordain 
other  presbyters.  They  were  taking  on  themselves 
an  office  which,  beyond  all  question,  they  had  not 
received  —  Avhich  was  not  imparted  to  them  in 
their  ordination.  There  had  been  a  perfectly 
clear  understanding  for  many  centuries  what  did 
and  what  did  not  belong  to  the  presb3'ter's  office. 
This  is  the  principle  which  it  is  essential  to  main- 
tain, and  its  title-deeds  lie  in  the  continuous 
record  of  Church  history. 

IV 

We  stand,  then,  repudiating  the  undenomina- 
tional conception  of  Christianity.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  Anglican  Churchmen  stand  repudiating 


24  THE  MISSION   OF  THE   CHURCH 

the  claim  of  Rome.  When  you  state  the  doctrine 
of  the  visible  Church,  sacraments  and  ministry, 
people  sometimes  tell  you  that  the  Roman  Church 
is  the  only  logical  expression  of  that  theory.  Now, 
historically,  the  Roman  Church  is  not  the  develop- 
ment of  the  whole  of  the  Church,  but  only  of  a  part 
of  it;  and  this  historical  fact  would  not  matter  so 
much  if  spiritually  the  Roman  Church  represented 
the  whole  of  Christianity  —  the  whole  of  Chris- 
tianity as  it  finds  expression  in  the  first  Christian 
age,  or  in  the  New  Testament.  But  the  more 
accurately  any  one  studies  the  subject,  the  more 
clearly  he  must,  I  think,  come  to  see  that  the 
Roman  Church,  whatever  be  its  graces,  powers, 
and  excellences,  is  a  one-sided  development  of 
Christianity:  a  development  of  certain  qualities 
in  Christianity  with  which  the  Latin  genius  had 
special  affinity,  its  disciplinary  and  governmental 
powers,  but  a  development  which  ignored  other 
qualities  at  least  as  certainly  belonging  to  Chris- 
tianity, such  as  the  strengthening  of  individuality 
which  it  is  intended  to  promote,  the  responsibility 
which  it  inculcates  for  personal  enquiry,  the  love 
of  the  bare  truth,  the  considerateness,  the  fairness 
which  it  ought  to  foster.  The  Roman  Church 
does  not  represent  the  whole  of  Christianity,  nor 
the  whole  spirit  of  Scripture  or  of  the  early 
Church.  To  some  of  us  this  will  seem  under- 
stating the  truth ;  but  a  statement  of  the  truth  as 
far  as  it  goes  it  certainly  is. 

Now  it  is  not  only  the  case  that  the   Roman 


THE  MISSION   OF    THE   CHURCH  25 

Church  does  not  in  fact  represent  the  whole  of 
the  Christian  spirit,  but  it  is  compelled  by  its 
principles  to  exorcise  part  of  it,  and  cast  it  out  as 
evil.  It  has  committed  itself  to  unhistorical  doc- 
trines, e.g.  that  the  pope  not  only  is,  but  has 
always  been,  infallible,  that  Mary  was  immacu- 
lately conceived,  and  tlLCit  these  doctrines  have 
always  been  recognized  elements  in  the  Catholic  faith. 
These  dogmatic  positions  it  puts  outside  the  region 
of  free  enquiry  and  criticism.  Thus  it  is  com- 
pelled by  these  unhistorical  dogmas  to  condemn 
the  free  appeal  to  history  on  matter  defined  by 
the  Church,  and  to  repudiate  the  responsibility  of 
a  private,  i.e.  personal,  judgment  on  matters  of 
faith.  And  this  repudiation  is  bound  up  with  a 
deficient  appreciation  of  the  claim  of  truth,  intel- 
lectually and  morally,  for  its  own  sake  no  less 
than  for  its  results. 

For  some  minds  Rome  is,  so  to  speak,  put  out 
of  court  by  positive  abuses,  e.g.  the  withdraw^al  of 
the  chalice  from  the  laity,  exaggerated  devotion 
to  St.  Mary  and  other  saints,  obligatory  confession 
to  the  priest,  compulsory  celibacy  of  the  clergy. 
To  other  minds  it  appears  a  more  convincing  con- 
sideration that  Rome  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  the 
whole  of  Christianity.  For  it  is  certainly  true 
that  Christianity  was  not  meant  to  be  narroAved 
as  it  came  down  the  ages,  or  to  become  less  and 
less  applicable  for  the  freeing  of  the  whole  of  our 
manhood. 

And  I  want  to  make  it  plain  to  you  that  this 


26  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

narrowing  of  Cliristianity  by  a  development  which 
however  jjowerful  is  one-sided,  coincides  with  the 
abandonment  of  the  ancient  rnle  of  faith.  Tlie 
ancient  rule  of  faith  involved  an  appeal  to  Scrip- 
ture as  the  ultimate  criterion  in  matters  of  doc- 
trine and  morals.  Nothing  could  be  required  of  a 
Christian  as  an  article  of  faith  which  could  not  be 
proved  out  of  Scripture.  This  great  principle 
secured  the  Church  from  the  danger  of  an  accumu- 
lation of  dogmas  such  as  the  Roman  development 
has  in  fact  brought  with  it.  The  doctrine  of  the 
Immaculate  Conception,  the  doctrine  of  the  Treas- 
ury of  Merits,  with  its  correlative  in  Indulgences, 
have  the  effect  of  narrowing  the  appeal  of  Chris- 
tianity by  excluding  large  classes  of  minds  who 
desire  historical  evidence  for  historical  facts,  and 
who  resent  the  undue  accumulation  of  spiritual 
poAver  in  the  hands  of  ecclesiastical  authorities. 
But  these  doctrines  could  not  have  been  pro- 
pounded as  articles  of  faith  so  long  as  the  appeal 
to  Scripture  was  legitimately  retained.  There  is 
nothing  in  Scripture  which  can  even  with  specious 
pretence  be  appealed  to  on  their  behalf.  Thus  it 
is  that  the  maintenance  of  the  ancient  appeal  to 
Scripture  is  the  main  security  that  the  faith  shall 
not  be  narrowed  as  the  centuries  go  on.  It  shall 
develop  but  not  narrow.  It  is  by  this  appeal  to 
Scripture  that  Anglicanism  stands  or  falls  in  its 
controversy  Avith  Rome.  Yes,  and  it  is  able  to 
make  it  stand. 

We  have  no  cause  to  apologize  for  our  position ; 


THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH  27 

we  have  cause  rather  to  be  thankful  for  it.  Angli- 
canism represents  a  combination  which,  if  Chris- 
tianity is  to  do  its  work,  must  exist  and  be 
amongst  the  most  beneficent  forces  of  catholicity 
in  the  world.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  Anglican 
Church  that  at  the  Reformation  she  repudiated 
neither  the  ancient  structure  of  Catholicism,  nor 
the  new  and  freer  movement.  Upon  the  ancient 
structure  —  the  creeds,  the  canon,  the  hierarch}^, 
the  sacraments  —  she  retained  her  hold  Avhile  she 
opened  her  arms  to  the  new  learning,  the  new 
appeal  to  Scripture,  the  freedom  of  historical  criti- 
cism and  the  duty  of  private  judgment.  No  doubt 
she  made  mistakes.  But  in  the  main  she  approved 
herself  a  Avise  steward,  bringing  forth  out  of  her 
treasury  things  new  and  old.  Therefore  it  is  that 
she  stands  in  such  a  unique  condition  of  promise 
at  the  present  moment  among  the  Churches  of 
Christendom. 

I  believe  then  in  one  Holy  Catholic  Church. 
This  visible  structure  of  the  Church  is  imperfect 
as  you  see  it  at  present ;  imperfect  in  its  unity, 
because  human  arrogance  and  impatience  have 
brought  about  division;  imperfect  in  catholicity, 
because  human  slackness  has  left  so  large  a  part 
of  the  world  still  outside  its  area;  imperfect  in 
sanctity  through  the  lawlessness  of  human  sin. 
Still  it  is  this  structure  wdiich  has  been  given  to 
us,  in  and  through  which  to  w^ork  for  God.  In  its 
authorization  and  in  its  possibilities  it  remains 
divine. 


28  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

Can  I  express  the  reality  of  our  responsibility 
for  the  Church,  or  the  limits  to  our  responsibility, 
better  than  in  words  we  read  yesterday  ?  "  Mor- 
decai  said  to  Esther,  If  thou  altogether  boldest 
thy  peace  at  this  time,  then  shall  there  enlarge- 
ment and  deliverance  arise  to  the  Jews  from 
another  place;  but  thou  and  thy  father's  house 
shall  be  destroyed;  and  who  knoweth  whether 
thou  art  not  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time 
as  this?"i  That  is,  first:  We  cannot  destroy  the 
Church  of  God.  As  that  lies  outside  our  respon- 
sibilities in  its  structure,  so  it  lies  outside  our 
power  to  destroy  it.  The  gates  of  death  shall  not 
prevail  against  it;  and  no  failure  or  sin  on  our 
part  can  imperil  it.  However  we  behave  "En- 
largement and  deliverance  shall  arise  to  the  Jews 
—  to  the  Israel  of  God  —  from  another  place." 
But  in  our  own  particular  district  of  responsibility, 
or  within  ourselves,  we  can  destroy  the  Church  of 
God.  "Thou  and  thy  Father's  house  shall  be 
destroyed."  And  if  there  is  trial  here,  is  there 
not  opportunity  also?  "Who  knoweth  whether 
thou  art  not  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time 

as  this?" 

1  Esther  iv.  14. 


LECTURE   II 

UNITY  WITHIN  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND 

"But  the  wisdom  that  is  from  above  is  first  pure,  then 
peaceable,  gentle,  and  easy  to  be  entreated,  full  of  mercy  and 
good  fruits,  without  partiality  and  without  hypocrisy." 

—  St.  James  iii.  17. 

Reverend  Father  in  God,  my  brethren  of  the 
clergy  and  of  the  laity, —  The  Church,  we  saw,  is 
a  visible  society;  that  is,  an  organized  body  with 
distinctive  rites,  officers,  conditions  of  member- 
ship. But  the  elements  in  her  constitution  which 
render  her  a  visible  society  do  not  disqualify  her 
for  permanence  or  catholicity.  Her  definite  creed, 
her  fixed  canon  of  sacred  books,  her  sacraments, 
her  ministr}^,  belong  to  no  particular  epoch  and  no 
particular  race  or  kind  of  men;  they  belong  to 
what  is  simply  human  in  us;  they  are  as  well 
fitted  for  one  age  as  for  another:  that  is  to  say, 
they  are  elements  in  an  institution  intended  for 
universality  —  the  Catholic  Church.  They  belong 
to  us  therefore  to-day,  in  our  special  opportunities 
and  difficulties,  as  truly  as  they  belonged  to  an}^ 
section  of  the  Church  in  past  time.  Now,  if  with 
this  conviction  we  look  around  and  ask  ourselves 

29 


30  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

whether  the  Church  here  and  now  is  making  full 
use  of  the  materials  with  which  God's  bounty  has 
supplied  it  for  the  conversion  and  edification  of 
mankind,  or  if  not,  why  not,  we  are  struck  at  once 
with  what  is  obviously  the  main  present  hindrance 
to  our  effectiveness  —  I  mean  our  divisions. 

The  acuteness  of  the  divisions  inside  our  own 
Church  is  less,  I  suppose  we  may  say  with  thank- 
fulness, than  it  was  some  years  ago.  Parties  in 
the  Church  have  been  brought  more  together.  It 
has  been  the  main  advantage,  perhaps,  of  Church 
meetings,  whether  diocesan  or  general  —  Diocesan 
Conferences  or  Church  Congresses  —  that  they 
have  brought  men  of  different  schools  to  know, 
understand  and  tolerate  one  another  better;  and 
there  is  undoubtedly,  sj)eaking  generally,  less 
strain  in  England  among  religious  parties  than 
there  was.  They  are  merging  more  the  one  into 
the  other.  They  are  learning  more  the  one  from 
the  other.  The  great  streams  of  Church  revival 
are  undoubtedly  fusing  in  their  result,  their  issue, 
their  influence.  In  a  word,  w^e  are  less  divided 
than  we  were ;  but  still  far  more  divided  than  we 
ought  to  be.  Internal  divisions  still  constitute 
an  immense  hindrance.  We  are  to  consider  them 
this  afternoon. 


The  Church  of  England  provides  us  with  a 
definite  limit  to  division  —  or  at  least  to  legiti- 
mate division  —  in  providing  us  with  a  rule  of 


UNITY    WITHIN   THE   CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND      31 

fiiitli.  What  is  this  Anglican  rule  of  faith  in 
principle,  and  to  what  does  it  appeal?  I  cannot 
answer  this  question  better  than  by  recalling  to 
your  minds  the  fact  that  the  Convocation  which 
imposed  on  the  clergy  subscription  to  the  Articles 
of  Religion,  issued  a  canon  to  preachers  enjoining 
them  to  "  teach  nothing  in  their  sermons  which 
they  should  require  to  be  devoutly  held  and 
believed  by  the  people  except  what  is  agreeable  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  and 
what  the  ancient  fathers  and  catholic  bishops  ha^-e 
collected  out  of  the  said  doctrine."  The  English 
Church  appeals  in  some  sense  to  Holy  Scripture 
and  Catholic  tradition. 

If  we  examine  the  earliest  document  of  Chris- 
tianity we  find  that  the  Apostles  taught  a  certain 
body  of  truth  which  was  to  be  the  mould  of  Cln-is- 
tian  character.  This  was  called  from  the  first 
"the  tradition,"  "the  apostles'  doctrine,"  "the 
faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints."^  St. 
Paul  recognizes  in  this  tradition  a  limit  even  to 
his  own  teaching:  "Though  Ave,  or  an  angel  from 
heaven,  preach  any  other  gospel  unto  3^ou  than 
that  which  we  have  preached  unto  you,  let  him  be 
accursed."*^  This  tradition,  then,  was  the  thing 
handed  over  once  for  all  to  the  Church.  The 
Church  was  to  be  "the  pillar  and  g^^ound  of  the 
truth,  "3  because,   as  a  visible   society,    she   was 

1  2  Thess.  iii.  G  ;  Gal.  i.  0  ;  Acts  ii.  42  ;  Jude  3.  Cf.  Rom. 
vi.  17. 

2  Gal.  i.  8.  3  1  Tiiu.  iii.  15. 


32  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

entrusted  with  the  task  of  handing  on  this  tradi- 
tion of  faith  and  life.^ 

If  we  now  pass  beyond  the  apostolic  period  we 
find  this  tradition  of  the  faith  —  which  later  down 
was  embodied  in  the  Creed  —  being  taught  in  the 
sub-apostolic  churches;  so  that  when  the  Chris- 
tians of  this  period  were  confronted  with  the 
Gnostic  heresy,  they  met  the  loose  and  shifting 
forms  of  idealism  which  are  grouped  under  this 
name  by  an  appeal  to  the  consent  of  the  apostolic 
churches.  "Look,"  they  said,  "at  the  various 
churches,  and  you  find  them  teaching  the  same 
creed.  They  cannot  have  got  to  such  agreement 
by  accident."  So  Tertullian  put  it  in  his  incom- 
parable epigram:  "Is  it  possible  that  so  many 
churches  of  such  importance  should  have  hit,  by 
an  accident  of  error,  on  an  identical  creed? "^ 

This  tradition  constitutes  the  primary  teaching 
for  Christians.  Look  at  the  New  Testament:  you 
find  it  is  not  intended  for  primary  teaching. 
Every  book  of  the  New  Testament  is  manifestly 
written  for  the  edification  of  people  who  had  been 
already  instructed  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Church. 
Thus  if  you  look  at  the  preface  to  St.  Luke's 
Gospel,  you  find  that  St.  Luke's  object  in  writ- 
ing is  that  Theophilus  may  know  more  accurately 
and  more  fully  what  he  had  already  become  fa- 
miliar with  by  oral  instruction.     So  St.  Paul,  St. 

1  See  app.  note  5. 

2  Depraescr.  28  :  "  Ecquid  verisimile  ut  tot  ac  tantae  (eccle- 
siae)  in  unam  fidem  erraverint." 


UNITY    WITHIN   THE   CHURCH    OF   ENGLAND      33 

Peter,  St.  James,  St.  Jude,  St.  John,  and  the 
author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  imply  that 
they  write  to  remind  or  recall  or  edify  those  who 
had  been  already  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of 
faith  and  life.^  The  Church,  then,  is  the  primary 
teacher;  the  Church  tradition  is  to  constitute  the 
first  lesson. 

What,  then,  is  the  function  of  H0I3'  Scripture? 
It  is  to  be  the  perpetual  criterion  of  teaching.  It 
is  the  quality  of  tradition  that  it  deteriorates,  it 
becomes  one-sided.  Thus  there  is  no  doubt  that 
Christian  doctrine  would  have  undergone  consid- 
erable alteration  if  there  had  been  no  court  of 
appeal.  The  departure  from  primitive  doctrine 
which  in  fact  took  place  in  the  mediaeval  Church 
was,  as  I  have  said,  mainly  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  Church  abandoned  this  constant  appeal  to 
Holy  Scripture  as  that  which  is  the  sole  final  cri- 
terion of  the  faith.  The  Church,  then,  is  the 
primary  teacher;  the  Bible  is  the  final  court  of 
appeal  in  all  matters  which  concern  the  faith  and 
morals  of  the  Christian  Church.  "  The  Church  to 
teach,  the  Bible  to  prove  "  —  that  is  the  rule  of 
faith. 

II 

On  the  basis  of  this  rule  of  faith,  let  us  now 
consider  what  in  fact  is  the  doctrine  which  the 
Church  of  England  sets  before  us  as  authoritative. 

1  See  1  Cor.  xi.  23  ;  xv.  1-3  ;  Gal.  i.  8-9  ;  Heb.  v.  12  ;  2  Peter 
i.  12 ;  James  1-19  [R.  V.]  ;  Jude  3  ;  1  John  ii.  20. 


34  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

1.  She  sets  before  us,  first  of  all,  the  Creeds. 
The  Creeds  give  us  the  doctrine  of  God;  God  as 
He  is  revealed  in  Christ;  God  in  His  triune  being, 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  Also  the  doctrine 
of  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  being 
God,  for  our  sakes  was  made  man.  Also  the  doc- 
trine of  the  ministry  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
Church  —  one,  holy,  catholic  and  apostolic.  Also, 
finally,  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body 
and  of  eternal  judgment. 

Now  all  these  are  parts  of  the  universal  and  prim- 
itive tradition  of  the  Church,  and  they  respond  to 
the  requirement  of  the  appeal  to  Scripture.  We 
do  not  get  them  from  the  Bible  in  the  sense  that 
each  one  picks  his  religion  for  himself  out  of  the 
book;  but,  taught  by  the  Church,  we  find  them  in 
the  Bible. 

2.  Passing  now  beyond  what  is  given  us  in 
creeds,  we  come  to  the  Catechism.  The  Cate- 
chism lays  down  what  is  to  be  known  and  believed, 
by  every  Christian  at  starting.  Therefore  it  incor- 
porates and  interprets  the  creed.  It  gives  us  also 
a  moral  rule  of  life  in  the  Ten  Commandments, 
with  their  interpretation.  Then  a  rule  of  worship 
and  sacramental  life.  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  rightly 
treated  not  as  one  prayer  among  mau}^,  but  as  a 
pattern  and  type  of  all  Christian  prayer.  And 
the  sacraments  are  interpreted  for  us  in  the  in- 
stances of  Baptism  and  the  Eucharist,  as  ordained 
modes  of  communion  with  Christ.  All  these  ele- 
ments in  the  Catechism  have  formed  part  of  the 


U^'ITY    WITHIN   THE   CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND      35 

tradition  of  the  Churcli  from  the  first;  and  again 
they  are  justihed  by  reference  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  same  may  be  said  of  the  doctrine 
implied  in  the  services  with  which  all  are  intended 
to  be  acquainted  —  the  services  of  Baptism,  Con- 
firmation, Matrimon}^  Ordination  —  which  more 
or  less  supplement,  on  the  sacramental  side,  the 
teaching  of  the  Catechism. 

3.  Beyond  this,  we  have  the  Articles.  Of  the 
Articles  you  find  a  certain  number,  and  those 
the  most  definite,  are  occupied  Avith  restating  the 
truths  of  the  Creed. ^  Four  others  ^  are  occupied 
with  laying  down  the  principles  of  the  rule  of  faith 
—  the  authority  of  the  Church  in  matters  of  doc- 
trine, the  truth  of  the  Creeds,  and  the  necessity 
of  the  appeal  to  Scripture.  Whilst  the  inspira- 
tion of  Holy  Scripture  is  implied,  there  is  no 
special  doctrine  laid  down  in  regard  to  its  particu- 
lar nature  or  limits.  In  other  Articles  ^  we  have 
clear  statements  as  to  original  sin,  on  the  principle 
of  justification  by  faith,  and  on  other  matters  of 
less  importance.  If  you  look  further  you  will 
find,  the  more  carefully  you  study  them,  that  in 
many  respects  their  language  is  studiedly  vague. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  a  dogma  to  define.  For  exam- 
ple, when  the  Arian  controvers}^  arose,  and  the 
Greek  Creed  was  remoulded  to  repudiate  the 
teaching  which  undermined  the  Godhead  of  our 
Lord,  the  effort  was  to  seize  the  exact  point  of  the 
controversy,    and,    by   the  selection   of    the  most 

1  Artt.  I-V.      2  Artt.  VI-VIII  and  XX.       3  Artt.  IX-XI. 


36  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHUECH 

definite  term  possible,  to  exclude  and  condemn 
what  was  regarded  as  subversive  of  the  whole 
basis  of  Christian  doctrine  and  life. 

On  some  central  points  the  Church  of  England 
possesses,  as  has  just  been  pointed  out,  definite 
and  explicit  dogmas;  but  in  regard  to  many  mat- 
ters which  were  in  controversy  at  the  period  of 
the  Reformation,  on  points  which  belonged  respec- 
tively to  the  Calvinistic,  Lutheran,  and  Triden- 
tine  positions,  you  find  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  Articles  appear  to  have  been  intended  not  as 
definite  solutions  but  rather  as  "  articles  of  peace  " ; 
they  aim  at  shelving  rather  than  defining  ques- 
tions. You  have  quite  definitely  Calvinistic 
articles  formulated  at  the  period  of  the  Reforma- 
tion and  Lutheran  articles  and  Tridentine  decrees : 
but  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  on 
points  then  in  controversy  lack  the  definiteness  of 
the  Lutheran,  or  Calvinistic,  or  Tridentine  deci- 
sions. And  we  may  be  thankful  the  Church  of 
England  did  not  commit  herself.  Indefinite /orm- 
ulce  are  not  indeed  satisfactory.  They  may  appear 
to  say  much  and  in  fact  say  little.  This  is,  I 
think,  the  case  with  many  of  our  articles.  But 
none  of  greater  definiteness  drawn  up  at  that 
moment  could  have  failed  to  commit  us  to  what, 
in  the  great  issue,  would  have  imperilled  our  posi- 
tion. The  moment  was  one  of  transition  and 
movement.  It  is  very  untrue  to  call  it  a  moment 
of  settlement.  This  is  apparent  in  retrospect. 
What  has  become  of  definite  Calvinism  and  defi- 


UXITY   WITHIN  THE   CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND      37 

nite  Lutheranism  all  over  Europe?  Has  Rome 
stopped  at  the  Tridentine  position?  Had  the 
sixteenth  century  the  materials  at  its  disposal 
which  are  necessary  for  understanding  the  early 
history  of  Christian  doctrine?  However  unsatis- 
factory then  the  articles  are  positively  as  state- 
ments of  truth,  they  are  satisfactory  in  what  theyi 
are  not.  It  is  the  very  fact  that  the  Church  of 
England  at  the  Reformation  did  not  commit  her 
self  to  any  one  of  the  three  then  dominant  ten 
dencies,  which  leaves  us  now  at  the  present 
moment  in  a  unique  position  of  hopefulness 
among  the  Churches  of  Europe.  We  are  left 
standing  firm  on  the  Creeds,  the  Sacraments,  the 
apostolic  succession  of  the  ministry;  and  on  that 
basis  we  are  to  rise  with  the  help  of  the  clearer 
knoAvledge  we  now  have,  to  the  full  apprehension 
and  presentation  of  the  ancient  faith. 

Thus  for  example  in  the  case  of  the  Sacraments, 
if  we  seek  to  know  what  the  Church  of  England 
lays  down  for  our  acceptance,  you  find  certain 
broad  limits  of  belief  clearly  marked,  and  Avithin 
these  a  space  which  is  left  without  further  defini- 
tion. On  the  one  hand,  the  Church  of  England 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  Catechism,  in  the  offices 
of  Baptism  and  Holy  Communion  and  in  the  25th 
Article,  excludes  the  Zwinglian  view,  according 
to  which  the  sacraments  are  merel}^  symbols.  In 
repudiation  of  this  view  the  article  accepts  the 
mediaeval  definition  of  sacraments  as  "effectual 
signs  of  grace"  (efficacia  signa  r/ratiae),  i.e.  sym- 


38  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

bolic  acts  Avhicli  not  only  symbolize  but  also  effect 
or  convey  what  they  symbolize  —  God  Himself, 
according  to  His  promise,  working  invisibly  on 
the  occasion  of  each  visible  ceremony.  ^  On  the 
other  hand,  the  Church  of  England  repudiates  cer- 
tain current  mediaeval  doctrines  in  regard  to  the 
sacraments;  as,  for  instance,  the  mediaeval  doc- 
trine of  Transubstantiation,  which  is  declared, 
among  other  things,  by  denying  the  reality  of  the 
outward  part  of  the  sacrament  of  the  Eucharist, 
to  overthrow  the  nature  of  a  sacrament,  which  has 
an  outward  and  natural  as  well  as  an  inward  and 
supernatural  part. 

Once  again,  in  regard  to  Holy  Orders,  the 
Church  of  England  requires  the  maintenance  of 
the  apostolic  succession.  Slie  confines  her  min- 
isfay  to  those  who  have  been  actually  ordained  in 
this  manner.  She  does  not  require  the  reordina- 
tion  of  Roman  Catholic  priests  who  join  the  An- 
glican communion,  but  she  does  require  ministers 
of  religious  bodies  who  have  not  received  episco- 
pal ordination  to  be  ordained  afresh.  Thus  she 
requires  that  men  should  in  fact  have  received 
their  ministry  by  apostolic  succession,  whereas  on 
the  other  hand  she  does  not  require  any  exact  or 
explicit  expression,  of  belief  in  regard  to  it.^  Once 
more,  in  regard  to  Confirmation,  the  language  of 
the  service  implies  the  bestowal  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
on  the  occasion  —  the  gift  of  the  Spirit  and  the 
Spirit's  gifts  —  but  there  is  no  exact  expression 
1  See  app.  note  (3.  ^  i])ici.  note  7. 


UNITY   WITHIN    THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND      39 

of  belief  required  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the 
bestowal. 

Obviously,  whether  w^e  like  it  or  not,  we  are 
left  with  certain  clear  limits  of  belief  laid  down, 
and  within  these  limits  a  considerable  space  is  left 
open  within  wliich  different  opinions  are  permis- 
sible and  possible. 

For  m}'  OAvn  part,  it  seems  to  me  a  very  tolerable 
state  of  things  that  a  Church  should  subsist  on  a 
ver}^  limited  amount  of  positive  dogmatic  require- 
ment, on  the  basis  of  which  the  individaal  teacher 
and  the  individual  learner  shall  grow  together  into 
a  fuller  perception  of  the  whole  meaning  of  the 
Catholic  faith. 

Ill 

On  the  basis  of  dogmatic  requirement  which  I 
have  thus  endeavoured  to  state  let  us  consider 
what  is  the  position  of  the  most  conspicuous  par- 
ties in  the  Church  of  England.  I  mean  those 
three  traditional  parties  of  which  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  speak  as  High,  Low,  and  Broad. 
Speaking  generally,  their  genesis  and  character- 
istics are  sufficiently  apparent.  The  High  Church 
party  has  been  traditionall}^  identified  with  the 
assertion  and  maintenance  of  what  we  should  call 
ecclesiastical,  sacerdotal  and  sacramental  princi- 
ple. The  Evangelical  party  has  been  specially 
associated,  on  the  other  hand,  with  the  mainte- 
nance of  principles  such  as  circle  round  the  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith,  and  the  necessity  of 


4p  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

conversion.  The  less-defined  Broad  Church  party 
has  had  for  its  most  characteristic  positive  func- 
tion—  by  distinction  from  wliat  it  has  disparaged 
or  denied  —  to  emphasize  good  moral  living  as  the 
one  end  and  test  of  Christianity:  to  maintain  the 
principle  that  all  truth  which  is  preached,  all 
ordinances  ministered,  are  to  be  judged  by  the 
tendency  to  promote  good  Christian  living. 

Obviously  each  of  these  three  positions  is  rooted 
in  something  which  the  Church  of  England  un- 
doubtedly maintains.  What  is  presumably  the 
case  is  that  the  maintenance  of  truth  in  each  case 
has  become  by  reaction  more  or  less  one-sided,  and 
there  has  been  consequently  antagonism  tlnY)ugh 
want  of  correlation.  This  suggestion  will  be 
worth  our  while  to  consider  in  some  detail. 

I  will  start  from  the  point  of  view  of  sacrament- 
alism  —  the  point  of  view  of  the  High  Churchman. 
He  maintains  the  principle  that  the  system  of  the 
Church,  with  her  apostolic  ministry  and  sacra- 
ments, is  the  divinely  appointed  framework  of  the 
spiritual  religion.  This  principle  I  will  endeav- 
our to  interpret,  and  show  its  relation  to  the 
points  of  view  identified  respectively  with  Evan- 
gelicalism and  Broad  Churchmanship. 

The  "spiritual"  religion.  What  is  meant  by 
this  term?  In  religious  discussions  among  us  the 
term  is  always  being  used  and  yet  not  very  often 
defined.  In  the  ordinary  English  mind  the  term 
"spiritual"  still  carries  with  it  associations  of 
indefiniteness.     The  "spiritual"  is  supposed  to  be 


UNITY    WITHIN    THE   CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND      41 

opposed  to  tlie  "material,"  and  so  to  anything  tan- 
gible, visible,  definite;  or  "spiritual"  is  opposed 
to  what  is  "  literal  "  in  interpretation  —  it  is  meta- 
phorical, and  so  again  indefinite. 

Thus  external  ordinances,  because  they  are 
external,  rules  that  are  definite,  because  they  are 
definite,  truths  that  are  exactly  stated,  because 
they  are  exactly  stated,  are  more  or  less  commonly 
supposed  to  be  unspiritual  and  contrary  to  the 
character  of  the  spiritual  religion. 

NoAV  this  state  of  mind  is  in  fact  due  to  a 
fundamental  mistake  which  a  little  steady  think- 
ing ought  to  uproot. 

To  consider  the  question  as  a  matter  of  lan- 
guage. "Spiritual"  in  the  New  Testament  is 
never,  in  fact,  opposed  to  what  is  material  or 
visible,  but  only  to  what  is  carnal  —  to  that  in 
which  the  higher  part  of  our  nature  is  dragged  at 
the  heels  of  the  lower.  ^  Thus  the  birth  of  Isaac 
is  spiritual  —  "he  was  born,"  St.  Paul  says,  "after 
the  spirit";  while  the  birth  of  Ishmael  is  carnal 
"after  the  flesh, "^  not  because  the  birth  of  Isaac 
was  one  whit  less  visible  or  material  than  the 
birth  of  Ishmael,  but  because  it  came  about  so 
as  to  express  a  spiritual  and  divine  purpose,  and 
not  as  the  outcome  of  mere  physical  passion.  Or, 
again,  what  is  spiritual  may  be  opposed  to  what 
is  formal  —  to  an  act,  that  is,  which  is  external 
only  and  has  no  moral  meaning  behind  it.  So 
St.  Paul  speaks  of  circumcision  which  is  "  in  the 

1  See  app.  note  8.  ^  Gal.  iv.  29  ;  cf.  I  Cor.  x.  3,  4. 


42  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHUKCH 

letter,"  that  is,  in  external  form  only,  and  not 
"in  the  spirit,"  as  having  nothing  moral  corre- 
sponding to  it;i  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
supremely  spiritual  act,  the  act  of  Christ  when 
"in  His  eternal  spirit  He  offered  Himself  without 
spot  to  God,"  gains  its  meaning  through  its  being 
visible  and  enacted  in  the  flesh  —  it  was  an  "offer- 
ing of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all."^ 
Once  again  there  is  one  passage  Avhere  "spirit- 
ually" means  metaphorically  or  allegorically  in 
the  matter  of  interpretation,  the  passage  in  the 
Apocalypse  in  which  the  city  is  spoken  of,  "  which 
spiritually  is  called  Sodom  and  Egypt,  "^  where  it 
is  implied  that  these  sinful  places  have  a  mystical 
meaning,  because  their  sinfulness  represented  a 
principle  wider  than  themselves.  But  this  use  of 
the  Avord  "spiritually"  is  unique  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  in  itself  it  only  implies  that  cer- 
tain definite  outward  objects  and  incidents  en- 
shrine eternal  principles. 

Positivel}^  then,  Avhat  does  the  New  Testament 
language  teach  us  to  understand  by  the  spiritual 
religion,  as  opposed  to  what  is  carnal  or  formal  or 
unreal  ?  The  central  idea  of  the  spirit  is  that  of 
life:  the  Christian  Church  is  spiritual  because  in 
a  unique  sense  she,  on  her  pentecostal  birthday, 
received  the  communication  of  divine  life,  in  its 
threefold  form  of  power,  of  knowledge  and  of  love. 
The  spirit  is  power:  as  for  the  "letter"  —  the 
written  laws  of  the  Old  Covenant —  it  could  effect 

1  Rom.  ii.  29.  2  Heb.  ix.  14  ;  x.  10.  ^  Rev.  xi.  8. 


UNITY    WITHIN    THE    CHUIICH    OF    ENGLAND      43 

nothing.  It  conld  inform  the  conscience  or  ter- 
rify it,  but  it  could  not  strengthen  the  will  and 
make  it  effective  for  good;  but  the  Spirit  gave 
life,  so  that  the  "requirement  of  the  law"  is 
"fulfilled  in  us  who  walk  after  the  Spirit."  ^ 
Again,  the  Spirit  is  knowledge :  as  for  the  ritual 
ordinances  of  the  old  law  they  Avere  dumb  forms ; 
they  carried  with  them  little  information,  or  such 
information  as  witnessed  to  their  own  inadequacy; 
but  the  Spirit  fulfils  the  heart  of  the  Christian 
with  a  joj^ful  intelligence  of  the  mind  and  char- 
acter of  God,  a  happy  insight  into  the  meaning  of 
all  he  is  required  to  do.  Once  more,  the  Spirit  is 
love:  as  for  the  old  law,  it  laid  injunctions  upon 
men,  which  had  to  be  obeyed,  simply  as  they  were 
enjoined,  with  nothing  more  than  the  obedience  of 
slaves;  but  the  men  of  the  New  Covenant  have 
received  the  Spirit  of  God,  and,  one  spirit  with 
Him,  they  act  in  conscious  correspondence  with 
His  redemptive  purpose,  and  serve  in  the  glad 
co-operation  of  loving  sons. 

Power;  intelligence;  love;  power  from  God, 
intelligence  of  God  and  His  purposes,  love  to 
God  in  Himself  and  in  His  creatures  —  these  make 
up  the  content  of  spirituality.  But  power,  intel- 
ligence, love,  as  they  are  represented  in  human 
beings,  beings  of  body  and  of  soul,  beings  linked 
to  one  another  in  outward  fellowship,  can  be  in 
no  sort  of  opposition  to  the  world  of  matter  and 
form.  So  holy  is  this  human  flesh,  this  thing  of 
1  Rom.  viii.  4. 


44  THE   MISSION    OF    THE   CHURCH 

matter  and  form,  that  the  Son  of  God  has  taken  it 
for  ever  into  His  own  person,  and  glorified  it  in 
the  Godhead.  Acts  the  most  spiritual,  then,  like 
the  sacrifice  of  Jesus,  are  not  one  whit  less  spirit- 
ual because  they  are  external;  truth,  the  more 
spiritually  it  is  known,  is  so  knowai  as  to  be 
expressed  the  more  exactly;  life,  the  more  spirit- 
ual it  is,  becomes  the  more  definite  in  purpose  and 
concrete  in  result.  The  acceptable  worship,  the 
worship  "in  spirit  and  in  truth," ^  is  as  much  an 
external  worship  as  that  supreme  worship  which 
the  Son  of  Man  offered  to  the  Father  in  the  sacri- 
fice of  Calvary,  or  offers  still  at  the  glory  of  the 
right  hand;  but  it  is  worship  which  enlists  alL 
the  full  energy  of  will,  and  intelligence,  and  love. 
The  Christian  Church  had  very  early  in  her 
career  an  opportunity  of  showing  that  she  did 
not  conceive  spirituality  to  be  in  any  antagonism 
at  all  to  external  religion.  She  came  out  in  her 
earliest  history  into  a  philosophical  atmosphere 
impregnated  with  what  is  called  "dualism"  — 
that  is,  the  assertion  of  the  antagonism  of  the  flesh 
and  the  spirit.  Greek  philosopliy  in  its  youth, 
in  spite  of  its  intense  realization  of  the  beauty  of 
outward  form,  never  succeeded  in  shaking  off  this 
delusion :  upon  its  old  age  it  returned  with  power- 
ful reinforcements  and  brought  it  into  captivity. 
The  reinforcements  lay  in  that  wave  of  Oriental 
influence  which  in  the  early  centuries  of  our  era 
flooded  our  Western  world.  All  the  then  preva- 
1  St.  John  iv.  24. 


UNITY    WITHIN   THE   CHURCH   OF    ENGLAND      45 

lent  sects  of  Gnosticism,  and  ]\Ianichceism,  all  tlie 
forms  of  philosophical  dualism,  had  this  in  com- 
mon—  they  thought  of  evil  as  lying,  more  or  less 
completely,  in  the  material  world,  in  the  flesli ; 
they  thought  of  the  material  world  as  too  low,  too 
vile,  to  be  in  direct  contact  with  God  or  the  direct 
work  of  Ilis  hand;  they  thought  that  true  religion 
lay  not  in  the  consecration  of  material  and  com- 
mon things,  but  in  getting  aloof  from  them  and 
separate  from  them.  To  get  away  from  the  body 
was  to  get  near  to  God,  and  the  highest  religious 
state  was  that  rapt  ecstasy  in  which  the  soul,  hav- 
ing become  unconscious  of  all  external  surround- 
ings and  independent  of  all  bodil}'  affinities,  could 
contemplate  God.  The  Church's  primary  and 
great  conflict  was  with  this  temper  of  mind  as 
represented  in  Gnosticism.  There  is,  I  believe, 
no  later  struggle  in  which  her  true  principles 
emerge  so  clearly,  as  certainly  there  was  none  in 
which  she  had  to  struggle  so  hard  for  very  life. 
The  opposing  principles  came  to  the  front  in  a 
fourfold  theory :  — 

(1)  that  the  material  world  could  not  be 
directly  the  handiwork  of  the  good  God,  the 
Father  of  Jesus  Christ. 

(2)  that  God  could  not  exactly  by  incarnation 
have  taken  into  Himself  the  human  flesh  and  been 
born  and  suffered  and  died. 

(3)  that  the  Old  Testament,  as  earthy  and 
sense-bound,  could  not  be  the  work  of  the  same 
God  as  the  New. 


46  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

(4)  that  the  acceptance  in  faith  of  a  definite 
creed  and  definite  ordinances  and  definite  scrip- 
tnres  might  be  good  enough  for  the  vulgar  and 
ordinary  Christian,  but  the  inner  circle  of  the 
perfect  and  the  illuminated,  the  spiritual  men, 
soared  above  those  restrictions  and  were  inde- 
pendent of  them. 

To  these  positions  the  Christian  Church  in  its 
different  parts  returned  a  blank  negative 

(1)  The  whole  world,  they  said,  material  and 
spiritual,  is  of"  one  creation :  it  is  rebel  wills  that 
are  the  source  of  moral  evil,  not  material  nature, 
which  is  God's  work,  and  rightly  used  is  very 
good. 

(2)  So  good  is  material  nature,  that  God  has 
really  entered  into  it  and  assumed  for  ever  the 
human  flesh. 

(3)  The  Old  Testament  is  of  one  piece  with  the 
New,  and  is  to  be  interpreted  on  that  principle  of 
gradual  development  which  is  a  conspicuous  law 
of  the  divine  working,  and  by  which  the  spiritual 
destiny  of  the  universe  gradually  appears. 

(4)  The  outward  ordinances,  the  fixed  tradition 
and  Scriptures,  the  ministry,  sacraments,  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  Church,  are  part  of  her  essence  and 
belong  to  her  glory.  They  are  her  glory.  You 
in  the  pagan  world,  or  you  who  borrow  the  pagan 
principle,  may  have  one  sort  of  religion  for  the 
intellectual  and  another  for  the  simple.  But  it 
is  the  glory  of  our  religion  that  she  puts  them  on 
the  same  basis;  declares  every  man  susceptible  of 


UNITY    WITHIN    THE   CHUKCH    OF   ENGLAND      47 

spiritual  perfection,  and  holds  them  altogether 
from  birth  to  death  —  high  and  low,  rich  and 
poor,  one  with  another.  ^ 

Life  in  God,  knowledge  of  God,  communion 
with  God,  may  be  to  the  pagan  only  the  ultimate 
goal  of  the  rapt  ecstatic,  or  the  privilege  of  a 
philosophic  self-abstraction  from  the  things  of 
sense  possible  to  a  very  few:  we  say  to  all  men. 
Take  it  as  the  gift  of  God,  made  tangible  and 
visible  in  common  ordinances ;  the  submitting  to 
be  taught  a  creed,  the  reception  of  a  washing  of 
water  and  a  lajdng  on  of  hands;  the  common  par- 
taking of  bread  and  wine,  these  are  simple  unos- 
tentatious acts,  which  all  are  capable  of,  which  all 
can  approach.  But  through  these  common  things 
of  the  common  world  our  God,  who  took,  and 
wears,  our  common  flesli,  still  communicates  His 
hidden  essence. 

This  was  the  boast  of  the  Church;  and  these 
sacramental  principles,  we  are  bound  to  note, 
antedated  long  the  development  of  ritual.  Elab- 
orate ritual  is  to  the  Catholic  Churchman,  who 
knows  his  principles,  never  more  than  a  matter  of' 
variable  expediency.  At  least,  in  early  days  a 
Christian  like  Tertullian  Avas  not  less  sacramental 
for  being  somewhat  puritanical.  People  are  scan- 
dalized, he  says,  by  the  simplicity  of  our  sacra- 
ments :  they  contrast  the  commonness  of  the  means 
with  the  greatness  of  the  gift  promised.  The 
heathen  rites,  on  the  other  hand,  gain  imposing- 
1  See  app.  note  9. 


48  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

ness  by  pomp.  But  with  us  a  man  descends  into 
the  water,  and  a  few  words  are  spoken,  and  he  is 
washed,  and  there  is  no  apparatus  or  elaboration ; 
and  for  this  very  reason  it  seems  improbable  that 
the  gift  of  eternal  life  should  have  been  conveyed. 
But  what  a  miserable  incredulity,  cries  Tertullian, 
have  we  here,  which  denies  to  God  His  proper 
attributes  — simplicity  and  power!  ^ 

The  Church  then  is  the  home  of  the  spiritual 
religion  because  she,  in  special  and  pre-eminent 
sense,  is  endowed  with  tlie  Spirit  of  Christ,  the 
Spirit  of  power  and  intelligence  and  love.  And 
the  manifold  gifts  of  this  Spirit  are  distributed  in 
such  a  way  as  befits  the  "household  of  God,"  in 
which  men  are  to  be  "fed  with  their  portion  of 
meat  in  due  season."  Each  stage  of  life  has  its 
special  need:  each  special  need  has  its  appropri- 
ate gift;  and  the  appropriate  gift  has  its  ordained 
channel:  all  is  ordered  and  simple  as  befits  a 
household  of  security  and  peace.  The  beginning 
of  the  new  life,  which  Christianity  perpetuates 
from  Christ,  lies  in  that  regenerating  act  of  God 
upon  the  soul,  in  which,  by  the  Holy  Spirit's 
action  it  is  united  to  Christ  and  admitted  into  the 
fellowship  of  His  holy  body;  and  this  regenerating 
act  is  ministered  through  an  outward  channel 
which  is  symbolical  and  also  more,  the  ordinance 
of  washing,  which  symbolizes  and  also  conveys 
the  cleansing  gift  of  the  ncAV  life.  And  next  to 
birth  comes  strengthening.  The  strength  of  the 
1  See  app.  note  10. 


UNITY    WITHIN   THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND      49 

Christian,  as  also  liis  consecration  to  share  in  the 
Ijriesthood  and  royalty  of  Christ,  lies  in  the  inward 
presence  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  this  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  communicated  since  apostolic  days 
by  the  laying  on  of  hands.  And  the  life  imparted 
must  be  nourished :  and  again  the  perpetual  nour- 
ishing of  the  new  life  out  of  the  fulness  of  the 
Christ  is  effected  through  tlie  operation  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  upon  the  simple  symbolical  elements 
of  bread  and  wine,  mingling  the  heavenly  with 
the  earthly  things. 

It  is  b}^  the  same  principle  that  the  general 
human  instinct  which  is  recognized  in  Christian 
marriage  has  its  benediction  in  a  special  ordinance 
giving  definiteness  and  sanctity  to  the  mutual 
engagements  of  man  and  wife.  So  also  that  orig- 
nal  distinction  in  the  Christian  society  of  the 
pastor  and  the  flock  is  emphasized  by  a  special 
ordination  which  solemnly  conveys  in  outward 
form  the  consecrating  and  empowering  of  the  man 
to  his  share  in  the  apostolic  ministry;  and  through 
the  outward  form  is  pledged  the  accompaniment 
of  the  inward  qualifying  gift.  Once  more,  the 
scandalous  sin  which  outrages  the  Christian  com- 
munit}',  or  the  secret  sin  which  burdens  the 
troubled  and  perplexed  conscience,  has  its  appro- 
priate remedy  in  the  special  discipline  of  peni- 
tence, which,  first  public  and  then  private,  at  one 
time  voluntary,  at  another  compulsory,  at  one  time 
occasional,  at  another  normal,  has  ever  remained  a 
permanent  fact  of  the  Church  tradition  —  an  out- 


50  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

ward  ceremony  of  penitence  and  restoration,  which 
is  accompanied  by  a  spiritual  and  heavenly  acquit- 
tal, and  is  a  part  of  that  rich  storage  of  graces 
with  which  the  Church  encompasses  our  varying 
needs,  and  leads  us  on  from  the  font  Avhere  she 
has  baptized  us  to  the  death-bed  where  she  still 
with  holy  rites  ushers  us  into  the  unseen  world. 
The  Church  is  the  home  of  the  Spirit,  Avhose  man- 
ifold gifts  are  ordered  and  distributed  in  corre- 
spondence with  our  advancing  needs:  as  she  is 
also  the  home  of  a  definite  disclosure  of  God,  Who 
has  communicated  Himself  to  man,  and  revealed 
Himself  in  the  person  of  His  Son.^ 

This  idea  of  the  Church,  as  one  states  it,  seems 
most  credible,  most  natural.  The  strength  of  its 
appeal  to  tradition,  to  the  earliest  traditions  of 
many  Churches,  is  undoubted.  Its  sanction,  in 
the  language  of  the  New  Testament,  is  hardly 
more  open  to  question ;  while,  once  again,  it  is  in 
conspicuous  agreement  with  the  needs  of  men, 
and  with  what  one  may  call  the  principle  of  the 
Incarnation  —  the  dignity  which  the  Incarnation 
gives  to  material  things.  But  there  is  no  idea  so 
true  as  not  to  admit  of  being  abused.  And,  in 
fact,  this  Church  idea  has  so  degenerated  at  times 
into  formalism,  or  materialism,  or  tyrann}^,  as  to 
account  for,  if  not  wholly  to  justify,  reactions  — 
reactions  which  are  one-sided.  It  is  only  so  that 
it  could  have  come  about  —  as  conspicuously  it 
has  come  about  in  our  OAvn  country  —  that  St. 
1  See  app.  note  11. 


UNITY    WITHIN   THE   CHURCH   OF    ENGLAND      51 

Paul's  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith  could  be 
jjut  into  opposition  to  what  is  also  St.  Paul's  own 
doctrine  of  Church  and  Sacraments, ^  and  identified 
with  a  party  of  its  own,  while  it  has  been  left  to 
another  less  defined  party  to  reiterate  that  all  reli- 
gion has  after  all  no  other  end  or  test  than  the 
production  of  good  living.  What  is  it  but  a  mis- 
erable and  foolish  one-sidedness  that  can  ever  have 
put  these  truths  into  antagonism  one  to  another? 
For  St.  Paul's  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith, 
what  is  it?  It  means  that  what  justifies  a  man, 
or  puts  him  into  a  relation  of  acceptance  with 
God,  is  not  anything  material,  or  external,  like 
circumcision,  or  any  methodical  observance  of  a 
prescribed  rule  like  the  Jewish  Law,  but  some- 
thing more  true  to  man's  fundamental  dependence 
upon  God;  it  is  the  surrender_o£ man's  being  into 
the  hand  of  God  considered  as  making  in  Christ 
the  simple  offer  of  His  love.  Wearied  with  his 
efforts  to  justify  himself,  wearied  with  his  own 
false  independence,  man  at  last,  within  or  without 
the  discipline  of  the  Jewish  Law,  learns  to  find 
his  true  peace  in  surrendering  at  discretion  to 
God,  and  simply  accepting  the  offer  of  His  love. 
This  is  justifying  faith;  it  establishes  the  right 
relation  of  the  soul  to  God.  But  it  is  the  begin- 
ning, not  the  end,  of  that  relation.  The  man 
grows  "from  faith  to  faith";  or  (again  in  St. 
Paul's  words)  he  "has  access  by  faith  into  that 

1  See  Eom.  vi.  3  ;  Tit.  iii.  5 ;  Acts  xix.  1-7 ;  1  Cor.  x.  16  ;  xi. 
23-34  ;  2  Tim.  i.  6. 


52  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

grace  wherein"  for  the  future  "he  stands."^ 
That  is,  the  believing  soul,  Avhose  simple  sur- 
render to  God's  promises  has  removed  allThe 
obstacles  to  his  justification,  is  baptized  in  the 
"bath  of  regeneration,"  "baptized  into  Christ." 
He  receives  the  Spirit,  he  enters  into  the  com- 
munion of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ.  In  this 
new  position,  the  function  of  his  faith  is  changed. 
Intellectually  it  dwells  upon  the  person  of  the 
Redeemer,  and  passes  from  faith  into  knowledge; 
morally,  it  keeps  hold  of  God  who  has  appre- 
hended the  soul;  also  it  becomes  a  perpetual  cor- 
respondence with  the  movements  of  the  Spirit 
whom  it  has  received;  a  perpetual  assimilation, 
manducation,  appropriation  of  spiritual  gifts. 

Christians  in  the  New  Testament  are  never 
regarded  as  persons  who  need  to  ask  for  the  Spirit 
as  if  they  had  not  already  received  Him ;  but  they 
are  called  upon  to  stir  up,  to  use  the  gift  which  is 
already  in  them,  or  to  abstain  from  grieving  the 
Spirit  whom  they  already  possess.^  The  function 
of  faith  in  the  Christian  life  is  to  draw  upon  or 
realize  its  existing  resources. 

But  all  this  doctrine  of  faith  is  in  no  kind  of 
antagonism  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  and  the 
sacraments,  rightly  understood.  Everywhere  life 
and  growth  consists  in  an  appropriation  by  an 
organism  of  what  is  supplied  to  it  from  without. 
This  holds  good  in  the  spiritual  life.  The  Church 
is,  in  recent  language,  the  environment  of  the 
1  Rom.  i.  17  ;  v.  2.  2  gee  app.  note  12. 


UNITY    WITHIN   THE   CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND      53 

soul,  the  sacraments  constitute  the  external  supply. 
The  supply  is  real.  The  sacramental  gifts  are 
valid  through  the  Spirit's  action  without  any 
effort  on  our  part.  They  are  God's  gifts  simply. 
But  their  whole  effect  on  us  depends  on  the  degree 
of  assimilative  and  appropriative  effort  —  the  de- 
gree of  faith  —  which  we  exercise.  According  to 
our  faith  is  it  done  to  us.  This  was  the  law  of 
Christ's  physical  healings  during  His  life  on 
earth.  The  instrument  of  healing  was  the  power 
or  virtue  which  went  out  from  His  sacred  person, 
but  the  effect  in  each  case  was  dependent  on  the 
response  of  faith.  Where  there  was  no  faith, 
there  was  no  healing.  According  to  their  faith  it 
was  done  to  them.  Their  faith  it  was  that  made 
them  Avhole.  So  it  is  with  our  Lord's  work  of 
spiritual  re-creation  now  that  He  is  at  the  right 
hand  of  God.  The  restorative  power,  of  which 
His  sacraments  are  the  ordained  channels,  depends 
for  its  efficacy  in  each  case  (not  for  its  reality,  I 
say,  but  for  its  effect)  on  the  response  of  faith. 
Nor  is  it  that  the  gift  from  without  is  God's,  and 
the  response  from  within  simpl}^  our  own  act. 
No!  Within  us  and  without  it  is  the  Spirit's 
action.  From  without  He  comes  to  us  with  gifts 
of  grace  in  all  the  organized  system  of  His 
Church:  within  us  He  works  to  quicken  our 
coldness,  and  to  overcome  our  wilfulness,  till  we 
exhibit  the  free  and  eager  response  of  a  converted 
heart  to  the  offer  of  God.  And  all  the  external 
supply  of  grace,  and  all  the  inner  resj^onse  of  faith, 


54  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

is  but  a  means  to  that  wlncli  is  the  only  end  of  all 
religion  —  the  renewal  of  the  soul,  of  the  whole 
man  into  the  image  of  Him  who  created  it. 

Brethren,  need  we  be  for  ever  in  reactions  ?  Let 
us  who  believe  profoundly  in  the  sacraments  see 
to  it  that  we  never  let  them,  so  far  as  lies  in  us, 
be  spoken  of,  or  treated,  or  used  as  charms.  Let 
us  give  no  countenance,  for  instance,  to  any  use 
of  baptism  such  as  would  allow  children,  who  are 
not  in  immediate  danger  of  death,  to  be  baptized 
when  there  is  no  fair  prospect  of  their  being 
brought  up  to  understand  the  meaning  of  their 
Christian  vocation  —  a  practice,  I  believe,  utterly 
contrary  to  fundamental  Christian  principles.^  Let 
us  see  to  it  that  on  our  side  there  is  no  failure  to 
preach  the  necessity  of  the  faith  which  alone  jus- 
tifies, and  of  the  converted  will.  Let  us  see  to  it 
that  we  never  allow  in  our  thoughts  or  our  lan- 
guage any  other  measure  of  ecclesiastical  success 
than  the  promotion  of  holiness,  the  promotion  of 
goodness,  in  the  actual  lives  of  men.  Let  us  see 
to  it  we  are  not  one-sided ;  and  then  we  may  have 
better  hopes  of  reunion  among  ourselves  in  our 
own  Church  of  England.  For  to  St.  Paul  the 
three  aspects  of  truth  which,  more  or  less  roughly, 
have  been  identified  witli  three  parties  in  our 
Church,  are  not  opposites  but  correlatives.  Three 
times  he  states  the  essence  of  the  true  religion  in 
antithesis  to  the  externalism  of  the  Judaists,  and 
three  times  in  different  terms.  "Circumcision," 
1  See  app.  note  13. 


UNITY    WLTHIX   THE   CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND      55 

he  cries  three  times  over,i  " -^  i^^Q^j^ji^ig^  and  uncir- 
cumcision  is  nothing,  but  .  .  .  faith  working  by 
love."  Do  you  ask  what  is  the  essence  of  true 
religion  viewed  as  the  response  of  man  to  God? 
It  is  operative  faith.  And  again  "...  the  keep- 
ing of  the  commandments  of  God."  Do  you  ask 
what  is  true  religion  considered  in  its  end  and 
fruit  ?  It  is  actual  conformity  of  our  lives  to  the 
divine  requirements.  But  once  again  "...  a 
new  creature."  Do  you  ask  what  is  the  essence 
of  true  religion  considered  from  the  side  of  God  ? 
It  is  that  new  creative  act  —  the  new  creative  act 
of  grace  —  which  in  all  its  stages  finds  its  expres- 
sion in  the  Church,  and  its  instruments  in  the 
sacraments.  The  system  of  grace,  the  response 
of  faith,  the  result  in  obedience  —  brethren,  these 
are  not  opposites;  they  are  the  correlatives  the 
one  of  the  other.  They  are  all  of  the  essence  of 
the  one  spiritual  religion. 

IV 

Let  me  summarize  the  conclusions  to  which  I 
have  endeavoured  to  lead  jou. 

1.  The  Church  of  England  has  certainly  a 
dogmatic  basis.  Any  one  Avho  would  dissolve 
that  basis  of  dogma  —  for  example  b}^  suggesting 
that  men  should  be  admitted  to  the  ministry  who 
do  not  in  simplicity  of  heart  hold  the  Creed  — 
is  undermining  thereby  the  basis  of  our  religion 
1  Gal.  V.  6  ;  vi.  15  ;  1  Cor.  vii.  19. 


56  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

as  a  whole;  for  our  religion  rests  upon  the  word 
of  God,  the  self-revelation  of  God  incarnate  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ. 

2.  The  Church  of  England  insists  upon  a 
limited  amount  of  dogma,  and  beyond  that  admits 
a  considerable  degree  of  divergence  of  opinion. 
It  seems  to  me  very  possible  that  this  is  the  ideal 
of  Church  government;  —  that  whilst  it  was  nec- 
essary there  should  be  certain  definitions,  and 
that  the  limits  of  Church  communion  should  be 
laid  down  up  to  a  certain  point,  possibly  it  Avas 
not  desirable  that  exact  definition  should  proceed 
far.  In  matters  of  ordinary  civil  government,  we 
recognize  that  some  external  legislation  is  neces- 
sary, but  over-legislation  we  think  a  bad  thing. 
The  same  may  be  the  ideal  in  Church  government 
also.  In  any  case  it  is  the  fact  that  the  Church 
of  England,  in  Creed,  Catechism,  and  Articles, 
fairly  interpreted,  makes  certain  dogmatic  claims ; 
and  beyond  the  point  to  which  they  extend  admits 
of  a  considerable  degree  of  divergent  opinion. 

3.  Beyond  the  point  to  which  the  dogmatic 
requirement  reaches  we  are  still  responsible;  re- 
sponsible for  completeness  of  knowledge  and  of 
teaching.  Each  one  of  us  starts  with  certain  fa- 
vourite doctrines  and  views  of  truth.  There  are 
parts  of  the  Bible  we  like  to  read;  parts  about 
which  we  feel  uncomfortable.  Starting  with  such 
predilections  we  are,  I  say,  responsible  for  advanc- 
ing, by  prayer  and  efforts  of  spiritual  apprehen- 
sion, till  those  parts  of  truth  least  congenial  to 


UNITY   WITHIN   THE   CHURCH   OF    ENGLAND      5T 

our  nature  are  really  appropriated.  We  are  to  put 
ourselves  to  school  impartially  at  each  of  tlie 
books  of  the  New  Testament.  We  are  to  grow  to 
an  intelligent  grasp  upon  the  Catholic  faith,  and 
to  remember  that  we  are  the  merest  slaves  if  we 
are  satisfied  w4th  bare  orthodoxy.  What  is  actu- 
ally prescribed  is  but  the  starting-point  for  spirit- 
ual apprehension. 

4.  The  temper  of  theology  ought  to  be  the 
temper  of  appreciation.  A  great  deal  in  life 
depends  upon  the  temper  of  mind  in  which  we 
approach  the  opinions  of  others ;  upon  whether  we 
endeavour  to  see  as  much  good  in  them  as  possi- 
ble, or,  on  the  other  hand,  approach  them  in  the 
attitude  of  criticism,  to  find  what  we  can  take 
hold  of  and  find  fault  with.  And  of  these  two 
tempers  of  mind  there  is  no  doubt  wdiich  is  the 
more  Christian;  for  "the  wisdom  that  is  from 
above  is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  considerate, 
persuasible,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits,  without 
partiality,  and  without  hypocrisy.  And  the  fruit 
of  righteousness  is  sown  in  peace  by  them  that 
make  peace." 


LECTURE  III 

THE  RELATION  OF  THE   CHURCH  TO  INDEPENDENT 
AND  HOSTILE   OPINION 

"Therefore,  seeing  we  have  this  ministry,  as  we  have  re- 
ceived mercy  we  faint  not.  But  liave  renounced  tlie  hidden 
tilings  of  dislionesty,  not  walking  in  craftiness,  nor  handling  the 
word  of  God  deceitfully  ;  but  by  manifestation  of  the  truth 
commending  ourselves  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of 
God."— 2  Cor.  iv.  1,  2. 

Reverend  Father  in  God,  my  brethren  of  the 
clergy  and  of  the  hiity,  —  We  have  been  occupied 
in  considering  the  divine  mission  of  the  Church 
as  a  whole,  and  the  doctrinal  basis  on  which  Ave 
rest  in  the  Church  of  England  in  particular ;  this 
afternoon  we  are  to  go  on  to  consider  the  relation 
in  which  we  stand  towards  independent  or  hostile 
forms  of  thought  in  the  world  without  us. 

What  in  general  is  to  be  our  attitude  towards 
opposition  ?  Is  it  to  be  in  the  main  an  attitude  of 
controvers}^  ?'  I  answer,  no.  I  remember  when  I 
was  being  ordained  priest,  the  late  Bishop  of 
Oxford  was  interpreting  to  the  candidates  for 
ordination  St.  Paul's  advice  to  Timothy  and  Titus 
—  "Let  no  man  despise  thee,"  "let  no  man  de- 
58 


ITS   RELATION    TO   INDEPENDE^^T   OPINION      59 

spise  thy  j^outh";  and  he  said  this  did  not  mean 
that  Ave  were  to  go  about  asserting  ourselves  every- 
where, bat  that  it  did  mean  that  we  were  to  be  the 
sort  of  men  whom  people  could  not  despise.  Now 
this  lesson  for  the  individual  priest  applies  also  to 
the  Church.  "Let  no  man  despise  her."  This  does 
not  mean  that  she  is  to  be  towards  all  alien  or 
independent  societies  in  a  perpetual  attitude  of 
controversy  and  self-assertion;  but  that  living  by 
her  own  proper  principles,  she  is  to  be  her  true 
self,  the  sort  of  body,  having  for  lier  representa- 
tives the  sort  of  men,  that  people  cannot  despise. 
We  must  bear  our  witness,  teach  the  truth  com- 
mitted to  us,  and  do  our  duty;  and  certain  it  is 
that  by  teaching  positively  what  we  have  to  teach, 
and  being  positively  what  God  means  us  to  be,  we 
shall  find  ourselves  in  the  right  relation  towards 
hostile  or  alien  modes  of  thought. 


We  are  to  teach  positively  what  we  have  to 
teach.  On  this  some  emphasis  needs  to  be  laid. 
One  often  hears  alarming  things  said  about  the 
forces  opposed  to  us.  People  get  into  a  condition 
of  panic  and  express  their  alarm  by  denunciation ; 
but  in  fact,  our  strength  lies  in  looking  to  our 
own  household,  and  setting  it  in  order.  For 
example,  one  sometimes  hears  alarming  things 
said  about  the  progress  of  the  Roman  Church  in 
England.      I    do   not   believe,    in    fact,    that   the 


60  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHUKCH 

Roman  Church  in  England,  as  judged  by  its  own 
statistics,  can  be  said  to  advance.  But,  from  time 
to  time,  you  hear  no  doubt  of  people  becoming 
Roman  Catholics.  Now  when  you  inquire  into 
such  cases,  or  have  the  circumstances  brought 
ander  your  notice,  you  find  generally  that  the 
cause  of  such  secessions,  at  least  among  the  laity, 
lies  in  our  not  having  done  our  duty  by  them  in 
the  Churclx — in  the  Church  of  the  place  where 
they  lived  not  having  really  shepherded  them. 
Either  the  penitent  soul  was  not  quite  frankly 
offered  those  opportunities  of  confession  which  the 
Prayer-book  would  desire  that  it  should  be  given ; 
or  the  anxious  and  inquiring  spirit  was  not  met 
with  the  advice  and  solicitude  which  it  had  a  right 
to  ask  for.  It  was  either  that  we  clergy  met  some 
suggested  "difficulty"  by  ridicule  or  evasion,  not 
being  ourselves  sufficiently  equipped  to  give  the 
advice  or  counsel  needed,  or  that  they  of  the  laity 
had  not,  in  fact,  been  instructed  as  they  ought  to 
have  been  in  the  case  of  which  we  have  no  kind  of 
reason  to  be  ashamed  —  the  case,  positive  and 
negative,  for  the  Church  of  England. 

If  you  turn  in  another  direction,  and  dwell  upon 
the  rise  and  progress  of  Nonconformity,  there  can 
be  no  question  at  all  —  it  is,  in  fact,  hardly  ques- 
tioned—  that  it  was  due  in  the  past,  not  to  any 
spirit  of  schism,  but,  at  least  in  the  great  majority 
of  instances,  to  the  fact  that  the  Anglican  Church 
was  not  behaving  as  the  true  mother  of  the  people. 
You   know  this  was  the  case   in  the  Church  of 


ITS    EELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT   OPINION      61 

Wales.  Let  her  become  again  but  the  true  mother 
in  Israel,  and  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  gradually 
—  not  at  once,  for  evils  of  long  standing  are  not 
rectified  at  once  —  the  children  will  come  to  recoo-- 
nize  their  mother. 

I  say  then  that  the  prevalence  of  forms  of 
thought  or  belief  alien  or  hostile  to  the  Church  of 
England,  is  to  lead  us,  first  of  all,  to  be  more  true 
to  our  own  principles,  and  to  teach  with  more 
positive  plainness  what  the  Church  commissions 
us  to  teach.  We  are  not  to  be  denunciatory,  but 
positive.  But  to  be  this  involves  a  good  deal  of 
study,  thought,  and  prayer.  It  is  easy  to  indulge 
in  vague  denunciations  in  the  pulpit;  and  easy 
again  to  give  ourselves  to  general  moral  exhorta- 
tion. Our  people  are  given  too  much  vague 
denunciation  of  what  is,  or  is  supposed  to  be,  evil, 
and  they  are  too  much  exhorted.  What  they  need 
is  to  be  taught  positively,  clearly,  and  scriptur- 1 
ally.  I  am  sure  there  is  a  danger  at  present  that 
advance  in  the  conduct  of  services,  advance  in 
ritual,  should  outrun  the  real  advance  in  positive 
teaching.  No  one  who  is  wise  would  undervalue 
reverent  worship.  I  may  remind  jou  of  the  sen- 
tence of  Hooker:  "Duties  of  religion  performed 
by  whole  societies  of  men  ought  to  have  in  them, 
according  to  our  power,  a  sensible  excellency  cor- 
respondent to  the  majesty  of  him  whom  we  wor- 
ship." Who  could  deny  this?  But  there  is  a 
danger  that  solicitude  about  services  should  out- 
run solicitude  about  teaching,  and  that  Ave  should 


62  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

be  over-easily  satisfied  with  "  getting  a  good  ser- 
vice." Let  me  exemplify  the  lack  of  positive 
teaching  in  the  matter  of  Holy  Communion. 

An  exhortation  to  Communion  is  introduced 
constantly  at  the  end  of  a  sermon.  But  what  is 
the  use  of  such  reiterated  parenthetic  exhortations  ? 
People  will  be  ready  enough  to  come  to  Com- 
munion if  they  understand  what  its  inestimable 
benefits  are.  But  in  fact  they  do  not  understand 
the  scope  of  the  Eucharist  as  communion,  as  sacri- 
fice, as  worship.  If  they  are  to  understand  it,  we 
must  not  be  satisfied  with  a  parenthetic  reference, 
but  must  supply  thorough  and  systematic  teach- 
ing. We  ought  to  devote  entire  sermons  to  par- 
ticular subjects,  not  selected  in  accordance  with 
our  own  proclivities,  but  following  impartially 
the  order  of  teaching  suggested  by  the  Creed  and 
Catechism,  always  supporting  the  teaching  of  the 
Church  by  constant  and  obvious  reference  to  Holy 
Scripture  —  "teaching  out  of  the  Bible."  To  do 
this  involves  study  on  our  part.  It  is  only  by 
study  that  we  can  do  our  duty.  And  it  is  all- 
important  that  our  teaching  should  be,  not  accord- 
ing to  the  partiality  of  the  individual,  but,  fully 
and  systematically,  the  whole  of  what  the  Church 
puts  into  our  hands  to  teach.  It  has  been  one- 
sided teaching,  or  the  neglect  of  parts  of  the 
truth,  that  has  been  in  past  history  the  excuse,  if 
not  the  justification,  for  schisms. 

We  are,  then,  not  to  be  primarily  controversial; 
but  to  be  occupied  in  positive  teaching.     And  yet, 


ITS    RELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT   OPINION      63 

without  being  controversial,  we  shall  find  ourselves 
in  opposition  to  alien  and  hostile  forms  of  thought 
of  different  sorts   in    different  directions.     Thus 
we  must  be  combatants,  for  we    are  to  "try  the 
spirits,"  and  "even  now  in  the  world  are  there 
many  antichrists."     Do   not   let  us   give  way  to 
effeminate  complaints  of  the  forces  now  opposed 
to  us,  talking  about  "the  good  old  times,"  and 
contrasting  them  with  the  times  in  which  we  live; 
for,  in  fact,   if  there  is  one  thing  which  history/ 
makes  more  certain  than  another,   it  is  that  there/ 
never  were  any  good  old  times.     Think,  for  exam- 
ple,  of  the  circumstances    of   the  apostolic   age; 
think  of  the  Epistles  of  St.    John  to  the   Seven 
Churches,  or  the  Epistle  of  St.  Jude,  documents 
which  belong  to  the  end  of  the  apostolic  age  and 
speak  of  the  dangers  which  then  threatened  the 
Church.     Were  those  good  times?     Or  pass  into 
the  second  century,  and  study  the  struggle  against 
various  forms  of  Gnosticism.     Hear  Celsus,  from 
Avithout,    saying    that    Christianity    was    already 
split  into  so  many  sects  that  there  was  nothing 
in   common    among   them   but   their   name;i  and 
Tertullian,  from  within,  regretting  that  "the  most 
faithful,  the  wisest,  the  most  experienced  in  the 
Church  were  for  ever  going  over  to   the   wrong 
side. "2     Were  those  good  times?     Or,  the  age  of 
the    Councils;    the    age    to    which    we    owe    the 
Creeds,  strong,  clear,  masterful  formulas?     That 
was  an  age  of  wild  controversy;  and,   amid  the 
1  Orig.  c.  Cels.  iii.  12.  2  Depraescr.  3. 


64  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

din  of  jarring  voices,  people  seemed  hardly  able  to 
hear  the  notes  of  certain  truth  at  all.  That  was 
not  a  "good  time."  How  was  it  with  the  Middle 
Ages?  People  talk  about  the  "ages  of  faith." 
Certainly,  there  was  more  credulity,  more  readi- 
ness to  accept  what  was  proclaimed  on  authority, 
Avhether  true  or  false ;  but,  so  far  as  faith  implies 
some  moral  effort,  there  is  no  reason  to  think  that 
there  was  more  of  it  than  there  is  now.  Read  St. 
Bernard,  and  you  will  see  he  did  not  look  on  his 
times  as  good  times.  Once  more,  take  the  age  of 
Bishop  Butler.  "It  is  come,"  he  says,  "I  know 
not  how,  to  be  taken  for  granted  by  many  persons, 
that  Christianity  is  not  so  much  as  a  subject  for 
inquiry;  but  that  it  is  now,  at  length,  discovered 
to  be  fictitious.  And,  accordingly,  they  treat  it 
as  if  in  the  present  age  this  were  an  agreed  point 
among  all  persons  of  discernment;  and  nothing 
remained  but  to  set  it  up  as  a  principal  subject  of 
mirth  and  ridicule,  as  it  were  by  way  of  reprisals, 
for  its  having  so  long  interrupted  the  pleasures  of 
the  world."  Were  those  good  times?  Or,  take 
the  generation  immediately  behind  our  own.  A 
good  old  churchman  who  died  not  many  years 
ago,  used  to  protest,  if  he  heard  men  of  a  j^ounger 
generation  complaining  of  the  evils  of  the  time: 
"If  you  had  been  born  when  I  Avas,  you  would 
wonder  that  there  was  any  Church  of  England 
left."  It  is  the  fact  that  in  every  age  we  have  to 
struggle  for  a  truth  that  seems  hardly  bestead. 


ITS   RELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT   OPINION      66 


II 

In  this  connection  we  ought  to  study  more, 
perhaps,  than  we  do  the  message  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse. It  is  the  book  of  the  New  Testament 
which  conveys  one  particular  lesson  —  the  les- 
son that  the  Bride  of  Christ  is  for  ever  passing 
through  those  same  phases  of  fortune  that  Christ 
in  His  human  life  passed  through :  the  cause  the 
same,  the  seeming  defeat  the  same,  the  same  the 
passage  through  the  grave  and  gate  of  death  to  a 
joyful  resurrection.  1  The  Apocalypse  lays  down 
the  main  conditions  and  principles  of  our  per- 
petual spiritual  conflict.  Under  symholical  forms 
we  have  set  before  us  the  great  drama  and  the 
dramatis  personce.  On  one  side,  the  forces  of  God 
—  God,  Who  sitteth  upon  His  throne,  the  sover- 
eign; and  the  Lamb,  crucified  and  triumphant, 
God's  revelation  to  men  of  the  victory  of  meek- 
ness and  self-sacrifice;  and  the  seven  Spirits 
before  the  throne,  representing  the  universal, 
secret  workings  of  God;  and  the  Bride,  the  New 
Jerusalem,  representing  the  true  humanity,  the 
true  society,  which  God  has  been  gathering,  and 
which  *will  be  at  last  supreme.  And,  on  the  other 
side,  symbolical  forms  of  evil :  "  The  old  serpent, 
called  the  Devil  and  Satan,"  Satan  setting  himself 
up  in  opposition  to  God ;  and  the  great  Beast,  the 
beast  of  violence  and  persecution,  the  counterpart 
1  Rev.  xi.  7-12. 


66  THP]   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

of  the  meek  Lamb  wlio  yields  Himself  to  sacrifice, 
and  tlirougli  sacrifice  triumphs;  and  over  against 
the  seven  Spirits  the  second  Beast,  the  beast 
who  represents  the  deceitfulness  of  sin,  the  spirit 
of  worldliness  and  false  philosophy;  and  over 
against  the  Bride,  the  New  Jerusalem,  the  woman, 
the  harlot,  representing  false  human  society,  whose 
characteristics  are  gathered,  from  all  corrupt  forms 
of  civilization  with  which  the  Bible  presents  us, 
Sodom,  Babylon,  Egypt,  Rome  —  the  persecuting 
empire  of  Rome  —  and  Jerusalem,  the  apostate 
Church,  rejecting  and  crucifying  Christ.  These 
"persons"  of  the  spiritual  drama  are  exhibited  to 
us  in  conflict,  and  the  spectacle  of  conflict  passes 
into  that  of  the  divine  victory.  And  the  whole 
succession  of  spectacles  teaches  us  the  conditions 
of  our  own  present  struggle  - —  the  nature  of  the 
antagonism  we  are  to  expect,  and  the  weapons  of 
conflict  which  we  are  to  use,  and  the  issue  which 
lies  before  us.  Sometimes  evil  will  present  itself 
in  the  form  of  persecution;  sometimes  with  "the 
deceitfulness  of  sin,"  no  longer  as  the  lion,  but  as 
the  adder,  in  the  subtle  influences  of  worldliness 
and  disbelief.  And  the  method  of  defence  —  the 
method  of  the  Lamb  and  His  martyrs  —  is  to  be 
the  method  of  mingled  loyalty  and  meekness. 
We  are  to  be  like  Christ,  who  rode  out  because  of 
the  word  of  truth  and  righteousness,  but  truth  and 
righteousness  linked  by  meekness.  Only  through 
meekness  can  we  triumph;  truth  and  righteous- 
ness not  linked  by  meekness  can  never  represent 


ITS   RELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT    Ol'iNlUN       67 

the  cause  of  Christ.  In  the  spirit  of  Christ's 
meekness  we  are  to  bear  witness,  to  bear  witness 
(if  it  be  so)  even  unto  death,  and  in  the  confidence 
of  His  resurrection  to  look  forward  to  the  certain 
issue.  For  the  kingdoms  of  the  workl  are  to 
become  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  and  of  His 
Christ.  Through  the  grave  and  gate  of  death  the 
Church  passes  to  her  triumph. 

Ill 

We  are  to  bear  our  witness,  then,  as  Church- 
men, in  the  face  of  alien  and  hostile  forms  of 
thought.  Let  us  consider  this  —  to-day  onl}^  as 
concerns  our  witness  to  theological  truth;  for  the 
consideration  of  our  moral  witness  we  will  reserve 
for  to-morrow  —  first  as  it  affects  us  at  home, 
and  secondly  witli  reference  to  the  mission  field. 
First,  as  it  affects  us  at  home.  And  whilst  it  is 
impossible  to  survey  in  any  sense  the  whole  field, 
I  would  call  your  attention  to  four  points  on 
which,  it  seems  to  me,  we  are  especially  called  to 
maintain  our  witness  at  the  present  crisis  of 
thought. 

1.  We  are  to  bear  witness  to  the  principle  of 
faith.  People  in  many  directions  are  disposed  to 
disparage  faith,  and  to  complain  of  its  being 
required  of  them.  The  complaint  is  in  the  air: 
it  influences  men  almost  without  their  knowing 
it.  They  have  an  idea  that  it  is  "unreasonable 
to    believe   Avhat    cannot  be   proved."     It    is    not 


68  THE  MISSION   OF   THE   CHUKCH 

unreasonable.  And  in  vindicating  the  principle 
of  faith  it  is  of  great  importance  that  it  should  be 
set  in  antithesis  not  to  reason  but  to  sight.  The 
popular  antithesis  of  faith  and  reason  is  a  very 
dangerous  one,  and  it  is  unscriptural.  In  the 
New  Testament  faith  is  opposed  always  to  sight, 
never  to  reason ;  and  the  difference  is  significant. 
"Faith  is  the  evidence  (or  test)  of  things  not 
seen."  Faith  is  the  faculty  in  us  by  which  we 
pass  out  beyond  present  experience,  and  lay  hold 
upon  eternal  realities  and  grounds  of  confidence. 

But  this  faculty  for  going  beyond  present  ex- 
perience is  a  faculty  of  our  reason.  It  is  in  order 
to  be  rational  —  that  is,  in  order  to  give  rational 
account  of  the  world  and  our  own  nature,  in  order 
to  realize  all  that  our  nature  is  capable  of  —  it  is 
in  order  to  be  rational  that  we  travel  beyond  what 
we  can  see  and  are  brought,  more  or  less  fully, 
into  contact  with  God  and  eternity. 

The  principle  of  faith  is  brought  into  exercise 
to  some  extent  in  all  human  life  and  knowledge. 
Thus  the  ultimate  postulates  and  principles  on 
which  physical  science  depends  —  such  as  the 
unity  of  all  things,  the  universality  of  law,  the 
persistence  of  force  —  these  are  not  truths  that  can 
be  proved.  They  are  assumptions  that  science  is 
bound  to  make.^  Thus  there  is  something  akin 
to  faith  necessary  in  the  very  beginnings  of  scien- 
tific inquiry.  But  its  necessity  is  much  more 
apparent  in  social  relations.  Human  life  is  based 
1  See  app.  note  14. 


ITS    RELATION    TO    INDEPENDENT    OPINION       69 

on  the  principle  of  faith.  You  must  go  far  beyond 
what  you  can  prove  as  to  people's  trustworthiness; 
you  must  trust  the  instinct  of  sonship  and  brother- 
hood. And  speaking  generally  you  find  your  trust 
justified.  On  the  whole,  "  according  to  our  faith,  so 
is  it  done  to  us. "  The  man  who  goes  furthest  in  be- 
lieving in  humanity  is  the  man  who  draws  most  out 
of  it,  whilst  the  most  sceptical  and  cynical  is  most 
often  deceived.  In  the  sphere  of  personal  moral- 
ity the  requirement  of  faith  is  still  more  apparent. 
If  we  would  be  moral  we  must  throw  ourselves 
upon  the  right,  in  the  supreme  confidence  that 
what  ought  to  be  can  be.  And  faith  is  only  find- 
ing its  true  home  and  justification  when  it  goes 
one  step  further  on  and  realizes  its  personal  rela- 
tion to  God.  For  "unto  Thyself,  O  God,  hast 
thou  made  us,  and  unquiet  is  our  heart  until  it 
rest  on  Thee."  Still  our  faith  is  rational.  It  is 
not  without  reason  that  we  believe.  God  has  not 
left  Himself  without  witness  in  nature  and  con- 
science; still  more  in  Jesus  Christ.  But  witness 
is  not  demonstration.  We  need  the  venture  of 
faith  to  "see  him  who  is  invisible."  Our  Lord 
develops  this  faculty  in  His  disciples  —  our  Lord 
who  is  the  Master  of  our  true  humanity.  He,  I 
say,  whilst  giving  the  disciples  grounds  for  believ- 
ing in  Himself,  and  in  the  Father  through  Him, 
does  obviously  encourage  and  develop  in  them  the 
faculty  of  faith.  We  then  are  not  to  be  ashamed 
of  it,  or  apologize  for  it,  as  if  it  were  unreason- 
able.    Nor,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  noblest  of  our 


70  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

faculties,  shall  we  be  surprised  if  its  exercise  is 
sometimes  difficult.  It  is  hard,  as  it  is  supremely 
noble,  to  "endure  as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible." 
It  would  not  be  worth  all  it  is  worth  if  it  was 
not  often  difficult  to  believe.  Nor  is  it,  any  more 
than  any  other  truly  human  faculty,  a  power  which 
we  can  exercise  without  God's  help.  "No  man 
can  say  (or  continue  to  say)  that  Jesus  is  Lord 
but  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Faith  is  difficult  then, 
and  a  habit  which  requires  divine  assistance ;  but 
it  is  rational.  It  is  rational,  I  say,  because  it  and 
it  alone  enables  us  to  give  a  rational  account  of 
all  the  facts  of  the  world,  of  all  that  science  and 
liistory  discloses,  and  also  of  all  that  lies  hid,  half 
realized,  half  concealed,  in  the  depths  of  our  own 
being;  of  all  that  spiritual  men  have  shown  our 
humanity  to  be  capable  of  in  sonship  to  God. 
Faith  enables  us  to  move  through  the  whole  world 
of  nature  and  of  man  as  those  who  have  the  clue 
to  its  secrets;  who  are  at  home  in  it;  who  are 
"not  afraid  of  any  evil  tidings,  for  their  heart 
standeth  fast,  trusting  in  the  Lord."  Indeed  the 
spirit  of  Christian  sonship  is  the  only  true  ration- 
ality. 

2.  We  are  to  bear  witness  to  the  Being  of  God, 
and  that  in  an  intellectual  atmosphere  which, 
under  the  influence  of  a  school  of  scientific 
inquirers,  exhibits  some  tendency  towards  Agnos- 
ticism—  that  is,  the  denial  that  we  can  know  of 
the  existence  of  God  at  all,  or  anything  about 
Him.     We   maintain,   then,    in   the  face  of  this 


ITS   RELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT   OPINION      71 

tendency,  that  we  have  grounds  for  knowing  —  in 
part  knowing,  and  in  part  believing  —  that  God 
is,  and  lohat  He  is. 

Ought  it  to  distress  us  that  we  should  find 
ourselves  confidently  affirming  what  the  represent- 
atives of  physical  science  —  that  is,  the  represent- 
atives of  the  bi-anches  of  knowledge  in  w^hich  the 
greatest  recent  advances  have  been  made  —  not 
seldom  deny?  I  answer,  on  the  whole,  no:  in 
part  because  the  agnosticism  of  men  of  science  is 
exaggerated;  and  when  they  are,  as  very  many  of 
them  are,  earnest  believers,  their  freedom  in  the 
facts  of  science  is  not  one  whit  diminished  by 
their  Christian  faith.  In  part  because  it  is  a  fact 
conspicuous  in  the  history  of  mankind  that, 
whereas  the  representatives  of  great  intellectual 
movements  at  different  epochs  have  interpreted 
truly  the  movement  which  they  represented  in 
itself,  they  have  been  strangely  blind  to  the  place 
which  it  was  destined  to  hold  in  the  whole  of 
human  knowledge  or  human  life. 

Thus  the  great  Greek  philosophers  interpreted 
truly  Greek  institutions,  and  estimated  aright 
their  positive  value,  but  were  blind  in  thinking 
these  institutions  final  and  the  last  word  of  social 
progress  in  the  world.  The  representatives  of  the 
Roman  empire,  again,  knew  the  real  dignity  and 
value  of  that  empire,  but  were  blind  to  the  rela- 
tive place  it  would  hold  by  the  side  of  its  despised 
contemporary  the  Christian  Church.  The  Re- 
formers, once  again,  had  real  truth  on  their  side; 


72  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

there  were  real  principles  which  they  were  vindi- 
cating, real  abuses  against  which  they  were  pro- 
testing; but  how  extraordinarily  blind,  speaking 
generally,  were  the  Reformers  to  the  sum  of  posi- 
tive religious  forces  with  which  they  had  to 
reckon.  What  a  surprise  to  them  would  the 
religious  history  have  been  which  links  their  time 
with  ours!  They  were  as  blind  surely  to  the 
forces  of  Catholicism  as  were  the  Deists  of  the 
last  century  to  the  real  if  dormant  strength  of 
supernatural  Christianity.  Once  again,  and  for 
the  last  time,  the  Radical  reformers  of  the  earlier 
part  of  this  century  set  their  minds  on  certain 
reforms  which  are  now  practically  accomplished. 
They  estimated  rightly  the  necessity  and  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  reforms  they  advocated;  but  how 
short-sighted  they  were  as  to  the  good  that  would 
be  effected  in  human  life  as  a  whole  by  the  mere 
external  enfranchisement  of  individual  action. 

I  learn  then  from  past  experience  "that  I  must 
attend  with  great  respect  to  the  positive  teaching 
in  their  own  department  of  any  body  of  men  who 
represent  with  tolerable  unanimity  a  great  advance 
in  knowledge  or  power.  I  must  attend  with  great 
respect  to  the  scientific  teaching  of  scientific  men. 
But  I  shall  not  anticipate  that  representatives  of 
one  particular  movement  are  likely  to  estimate 
rightly  the  place  it  will  take  in  the  whole  of 
human  life.  Thus  I  shall  not  listen  with  the 
same  respect  to  the  representatives  of  science 
when  they  pass  from  teaching  science  to  denounc- 


ITS    RELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT    OPINION      73 

ing  theology  or  depreciating  religion.  Those 
inside  a  movement  cannot  generally  see  suffi- 
ciently clearly  what  lies  outside  it.  Those  whose 
interests  are  less  specialized  are  more  likely  to 
estimate  the  place  it  will  take  in  the  whole  of 
human  life. 

We  must  regret,  I  think,  that  theologians  werefl 
unduly  slow  to  recognize  the  vast  amount  of  evi- I 
dence   on  which   reposes  the  scientific  theory  ofj 
evolution  through  natural  selection.     But  in  pro- 
portion as  people  lose  their  fear  of  it  and  come  to 
accept  it,  they  will  surely  perceive  that  the  claim 
made   for   it   by   agnosticism,    the    claim   that   it 
enables  us  to  account  for  the  development  of  the 
world  without  postulating  throughout  the  action 
of  mind,   is  an  altogether  exaggerated  claim;   it 
is    altogether   to    over-estimate    the    function    of 
natural  selection. ^ 

Science  has,  in  fact,  taught  us  a  great  deal  as 
to  the  method  of  creation  —  how  continuous  it  has 
been,  how  gradual,  how  even  tentative  —  but  it 
has  done  nothing  at  all  to  explain  the  origin  of 
force,  of  matter,  of  life,  nothing  at  all  to  dissolve 
the  conviction  which  belongs  to  the  rational  mind 
of  man,  that  this  world  of  universal  order  and  law 
and  beauty,  this  world  which  "while  it  works  as 
a  machine  also  sleeps  as  a  picture,"  is  the  work  of 
mind  and  spirit  like  ours  —  mind  and  spirit  which 
is  the  vast  whole  of  which  ours  is  but  the  tiny 
product  or  reflection. 

1  See  app.  note  15.  — -  -    .  . 


74  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

3.    We  are  to  maintain  a  historical  religion  — 
a  historical  revelation  of  Gocl  in  Christ;  and  this 
in  face  of  a  destructive  criticism. 
..  i;/^     In  the  Church  Cono-ress  in  this  diocese  last  year 
Vp  you  had  a  discussion  of  tlie  Church's  gains  from 
Biblical  criticism.      The  discussion  dealt  almost 
entirely  with  criticism  as  applied  to  the  Old  Tes- 
Vi/jtament.     Now    criticism   as    applied   to    the    Old 
VyTestament  presents   us    at   present  with  a  great 
many  unsolved  problems  and  some  fairly  certain 
conclusions  which  seem  to  demand  rather  unex- 
pected changes  in  our  conception  of  the  literar}^ 
character  of  some  of  the  books,  and  of  the  process 
by  which  they  took   their  present  shape.     That 
subject  was  dealt  with  from  this  place  at  large 
and  very  ably  by  Professor  Kirkpatrick  last  year.^ 
We  need  not  suppose,  as  his  lectures  sufficiently 
indicate,  that  the  change  of  position  ultimately 
required  of   us    will    be   such   as    the    extremists 
among  critics  would  desire.     The   existing   evi- 
dence in  fact  points  in  two  directions.     If,  on  the 
one  hand,    literary  analysis  emphasizes  the  com- 
posite   character   of   the   "books   of  Moses,"  and 
historical    inquiry   enforces    the    belief    that   the 
I  Mosaic  law  was  the  result  of  a  gradual  process  of 
/development  and  centralization ;  on  the  other  hand, 
oriental  archreology  discloses  the  existence  of  the 
knowledge  of  writing,  and  considerable  develop- 
ment   of    literar}^    skill,    both    in    Palestine   and 

1  The   Divine   Lihrary   of  the   Old    Testament   (Macmillan, 
1891). 


ITS   RELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT   OPINION      75 

Egypt,  a  century  before  the  Exodus.  Such  dis- 
coveries as  those  at  Tel-el-amarna  make  it  easy  to 
suppose  that  some  written  law  and  written  records 
go  back  among  the  Jews  to  the  period  of  Moses. ^ 

Certain  changes,  however,  will  be  required  of 
us.  We  must  remember,  as  St.  Augustine  has 
expressed  it,  that,  if  it  be  wronging  the  Old  Tes- 
tament to  deny  that  it  comes  from  the  same  God 
as  the  New,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  Avronging  the 
New  Testament  if  the  Old  is  placed  on  a  level 
with  it.  The  Old  Testament  represents  the  grad- 
ual method  by  which  God  led  men  on,  "in  many 
parts  and  many  manners  "  through  a  process  of 
education  preparing  the  wa}^  for  Christ.  The 
meaning  of  the  Old  Testament  is  to  be  sought  in 
the  partial  witness  which  each  book  bears  to  the 
central  truth  of  the  Incarnation. 

Now  it  seems  to  me  unfortunate  that  the  dis- 
cussions at  your  Church  Congress  dealt  so  dispro- 
portionately Avith  the  Old  Testament.  For  surely, 
Avhen  we  are  thinking  of  our  "gains  from  Biblical 
criticism,"  our  attention  is  more  naturally  directed 
in  the  first  instance  to  the  New  Testament. 
Surely,  it  is  here  that  our  gains  are  most  conspic- 
uous. Those  who  are  alarmed  at  the  tendencies 
of  Old  Testament  criticism,  sometimes  ask  where 
it  will  stop,  whether  it  will  not  go  on  to  the  New 

1  On  this  subject,  and  on  the  questions  connected  with  Old 
Testament  criticism  generally,  I  have  endeavoured  to  speak 
more  at  length  in  Lux  Mundi  (John  Murray,  12th  ed.  1891), 
pp.  247  ff.  and  Pref .  to  10th  ed. 


76  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

Testament.  But,  in  fact,  such  a  question  shows 
an  ignorance  of  the  situation.  Criticism  began 
with  the  New  at  least  as  soon  as  with  the  Old 
Testament.  The  New  Testament  documents  have 
been  sifted  by  the  most  thorough  criticism  which 
can  be  conceived;  and,  so  far  from  having  been 
invalidated,  they  stand  in  a  stronger  position  than 
that  in  which  they  stood  fifty  years  ago,  in  pro- 
portion as  the  examination  has  been  more  thor- 
ough. 

Trace  back  the  Synoptic  Gospels  to  the  two 
primitive  documents  which  so  many  critics  postu- 
late —  the  original  collection  of  discourses  repre- 
sented in  St.  Matthew,  and  the  original  narrative 
of  events  represented  in  St.  Mark's  Gospel. 
When  you  consider  the  Christ  depicted  in  these, 
do  you  find  that  you  have  got  any  nearer  to  a 
merely  "natural "  or  human  Christ,  to  one  who  by 
gradual  accretion  was  raised  into  a  supernatural 
figure?  No:  the  fundamental  narrative  of  events 
is  permeated  by  miracles  Avhich  resist  all  attempts 
to  explain  them  away ;  and  the  original  collection 
of  discourses  represents  in  all  its  unmistakable 
I  force  the  strictly  divine  claim  of  our  Lord.  In- 
vestigation, again,  shows  us  at  the  very  roots  of 
St.  Paul's  teaching  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarna- 
tion, as  a  matter  not  in  dispute,  any  more  than 
the  fact  of  the  resurrection,  between  him  and  the 
Judaizers.  Investigation  once  again  leaves  the 
strength  of  the  evidence  on  the  side  of  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  fourth  Gospel.     And,   as  Professor 


ITS    RELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT   OPINION      77 

Sanday  has  very  recently  said,  "we  cannot  help 
being  reminded  that  scarcely  one  of  the  discov- 
eries of  recent  years  has  not  had  for  its  tendency 
to  bring  back  the  course  of  criticism  into  paths 
nearer  to  those  marked  out  by  ancient  tradition.  "^ 
Certainly  historical  evidence  is  not  generally 
demonstrative,  and  the  historical  title-deeds  of 
our  faith  do  not  appear  to  be  intended  to  force 
conviction  upon  any  man's  mind;  but  they  do 
support  it  and  justify  it.  I  am  sure  that  I  am 
within  the  mark  in  saying  that  in  view  of  recent 
criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  it  is  those  who 
deny  and  not  those  that  affirm  the  faith  of  the 
Church  who  do  violence  to  the  evidence. ^ 

There  are  other  issues,  even  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  are  secondary  and  less  decisive.  But 
in  regard  to  the  central  facts  on  which  our  histori- 
cal religion  depends,  the  historical  witness  stands 
with  unimpeachable  strength.  We  are  not  then 
to  go  about  decrying  criticism.  We  are  to  invite 
criticism  to  do  all  it  can,  and  ask  only  for  justice. 

We  must  remember  further  that  our  historical 
religion  —  our  religion  which  looks  back  to  a  dis- 
closure of  God,  through  a  historical  incarnation, 
in  the  person  of  Jesus  Clii'ist  —  gives  us  another 
great  advantage  as  rational  men.  The  doctrine  of 
the  triune  being  of  God,  which  is  unmistakably 
involved  in  our  Lord's  language  about  His  rela- 

1  See  Two  Present  Day  Questions  (Longmans,  1802),  p.  37. 

2  See  this  argument  at  greater  length  in  Bampton  Lectures^ 
1891  (Murray),  Lect.  III. 


78  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

I  tion  to  the  Father  and  the  Holy  Ghost  —  this  doc- 
{ trine  of  the  trinne  being  enables  us  to  maintain  a 
!  rational  Theism.     Theism  requires  us  to  think  of 
God  as  an  independent,  eternal,  spiritual  Being. 
Indeed  there  is  an   end  to  the  humility  or  reality 
j  of  religion  if  God  is  thought  to  depend  upon  us 
\  in  order  to  have  some  one  to  know  and  to  love. 
j  But  you  cannot  think  of  an  independent,  eternal, 
I  spiritual  life  in  God,  if  the  being  of  God  is  blank 
I  and  monotonous   unity.     The  life  of   spirit,  the 
'  life   of   will   and   knowledge    and  love,    involves 
relationship.     For  love  there  must  be  a  lover  and 
a  loved;  for  thought  there  must  be  a  thinker  and 
an  object  of  thought;  for  fruitful  will  there  must 
be  the  perpetual  passage  of  will  into  effect.     And 
it   is    thus  the   doctrine    of   the   Trinity,    though 
we  could  not  have  invented  or  discovered  it  for 
ourselves,   which  makes  our  thought  of  God  ra- 
tional and  real,  because  it  shows  us  God  not  in 
isolation,  but  in  perpetual  fellowship  Avithin  Him- 
self.    The  eternal  being  of  the  Father  passes  out 
into   its   adequate    self-expression    in   the   eternal 
Word  or  Son;  and  the  Father  in  the  Son  knows 
Himself  and  loves  Himself;  and  the  fellowship  of 
the  Father  and  the  Son  finds  its  perfection  in  the 
Holy  Ghost  who  is  the  eternal  product  and  joy  of 
both. 

We  are  to  maintain,  then,  the  historical  Christ 
as  the  disclosure  of  God  to  us,  and  as  the  founda- 
tion of  an  intelligible  Theism.^ 

1  See  Bampton  Lectures,  Lect.  V. 


ITS    E  ELATION    TO   INDEPENDENT    Ol^lNION      79 

4.  Lastly,  have  we  not  need  to  maintain  "the 
Gospel"  in  view  of  reactions  against  what  is 
called  "old-fashioned  Evangelical  Christianity"? 
This  old-fashioned  Evangelicalism  dealt  almost 
exclusively  with  the  doctrine  of  atonement  and 
the  vicarious  aspects  of  Christianity.  And  these 
were  preached  in  a  way  that  did  violence  to  the 
moral  sense  of  mankind.  There  has  come,  and 
rightly,  a  great  reaction;  but  it  appears  to  be 
imagined  in  some  quarters  that  we  are  almost  to 
abandon  the  preaching  of  the  doctrine  of  atone- 
ment and  of  the  vicarious  aspect  of  Christianity, 
confining  ourselves  to  the  doctrine  of  ^he  Incarna- 
tion and  its  extension  in  the  sacraments  of  the 
Church.  Now  nothing  that  has  taken  such  hold 
of  the  human  heart  as  the  doctrine  of  atonement 
could  ever  pass  into  oblivion.  It  may  have  been 
put  into  undue  prominence,  and  we  must  rectify 
the  balance ;  but  no  more.  There  are  two  elements 
in  the  Gosi)el :  there  is  first,  Christ  for  us  —  our 
example,  our  sacrifice,  God's  simple  gift  to  us 
from  outside ;  and,  secondly,  Christ  in  us,  renew- 
ing our  lives  inwardly  by  His  Spirit  into  union 
with  His  own. 

Now  it  is  not  a  question  of  whether  we  shall 
preach  the  one  or  the  other  of  these  elements  in 
the  Gospel.  If  we  would  be  true  to  the  New 
Testament,  we  must  preach  and  hold  them  both. 
For  it  is  Christ  in  us  that  makes  intelligible 
Christ  for  us ;  and  it  is  Christ  for  us  ^^■ho  prepares 
the  way  for  Christ  in  us.     It  is   Christ  for  us   in 


80  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

awful  solitude  "treading  the  wine-press  alone" 
who  lives  the  true  human  life  and  offers  the  per- 
fect human  sacrifice  to  the  divine  righteousness. 
This  is  God's  gift  to  us  which,  in  utter  repudia- 
tion of  any  merits  of  our  own,  we  are  simply  to 
accept  in  faith.  But  Christ  can  thus  act  "for  us  " 
because  He  proceeds  to  act  "in  us."  His  Spirit 
comes  forth  out  of  His  ascended  and  glorified 
manhood  and  links  us  on  to  Him ;  henceforth  it  is 
Christ  in  us  imparting  His  life  to  us  and  identi- 
fying us  with  Himself.  If  then  we  are  to  bear  a 
complete  witness,  if  we  are  to  appeal  to  the  con- 
sciences of  men  both  as  they  desire  pardon  for  sin 
and  as  they  desire  actual  righteousness,  we  shall 
not  preach  one  or  other  of  these  elements  in  the 
Gospel,  but  the  truth  of  both. 

Here  are  four  ways  in  which  our  witness  is 
required:  —  as  to  the  principle  of  faith:  as  to  the 
being  of  God:  as  to  His  revelation  of  Himself 
in  the  historical  person  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
events  of  His  human  life:  as  to  the  full  meaning 
of  the  Gospel  which  is  embodied  in  Christ's  per- 
son, our  sacrifice  as  well  as  our  example  and  our 
new  life. 

IV 

I  have  left  myself  but  little  time  to  speak  of  the 
witness  which  the  Church  must  bear  abroad  among 
the  heathen.  It  is  the  same  witness  but  under 
different  conditions — ^in  face  of  Hindu,  Bud- 
dhist, Mohammedan  forms  of  thought,  in  India, 


ITS   KELATION   TO   INDEPENDENT   OPINION      81 

China,  Japan,  and  the  region  of  the  Turkish 
Empire  lost  to  the  Church,  and  in  face  of  less 
developed  forms  of  belief  among  less  civilized 
tribes.  Not  nearly  half  of  the  world,  we  must 
remember,  is  yet  Christian.  It  is  the  catholic 
mission  and  claim  of  the  Church  that  we  are 
called  upon  to  vindicate.  This  means  that  Christ 
is  adequate  for  all  races,  and  can  satisfy  all  forms 
of  human  need.  Already  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity it  has  appeared  how  each  fresh  race  as  it 
has  been  brought  within  the  Church,  has  both 
itself  found  its  sanctification  there,  and  also  has 
brought  out  some  fresh  aspect  of  the  full  meaning 
of  Christ.  It  was  but  a  very  small  part  of  Chris- 
tianity which  emerged  in  the  purely  Jewish 
Church.  The  Greek  race,  with  its  unique  powers 
of  intellect,  had  for  its  vocation  to  bring  out  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  which  lay  hid  in  C  hrist.  To 
it  in  the  main  we  owe  our  theology.  The  Roman 
race,  with  its  wonderful  powers  of  discipline  and 
organization,  built  up  the  mediseval  Papacy,  that 
glorious  witness  to  the  governing  and  disciplining 
forces  of  Christianity.  The  Teutonic  race  has 
surely  taught  the  world  much  that  it  would  not 
otherwise  have  known,  of  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity in  consecrating  individual  character.  And 
there  still  remain  great  and  rich  gifts  for  conse- 
cration ;  the  subtilty  of  the  Hindus,  the  patience 
of  the  Chinese,  the  geniality  and  gentleness  of 
the  Japanese.  Here  are  great  qualities  not  yet, 
except  in  small  measure,  sanctified  in  Christ;  and 


82  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHUECH 

we  shall  not  see  the  full  glory  of  Christianity  till 
these  alien  races  are  brought  inside  the  circle  of 
the  Church,  to  bring  unsuspected  treasures  of  wis- 
dom and  beauties  of  character  out  of  the  same  old 
and  unchanging  creed. 

Such  considerations  may  fire  our  imaginations  : 
but,  prior  to  them  and  more  simply  cogent  there 
lies  uj)on  us  the  injunction  of  Christ:  "Go  ye 
into  all  the  world,"  "make  disciples  of  all  the 
nations,  baptizing  them  into  the  name  of  the 
leather,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

Brethren,  here  then  is  our  paramount  duty.  It 
is  a  shame  how  long,  to  how  wide  an  extent,  with 
what  disastrous  results,  Ave  have  forgotten  it. 
fWe  are  to  proclaim  Christianity  as  superseding 
jail  other  religions  by  a  method  not  so  much  of 
lexclusion  as  of  inclusion.  Fo¥  Christ  "the  light 
which  lighteneth  every  man,"  the  Word  in  every 
man's  heart,  has  left  Himself  nowhere,  in  no  reli- 
gion, without  witness.  All  religions  contain 
more  or  less  considerable  elements  of  truth.  And 
Christianity,  I  say,  supersedes  other  religions  by 
including  the  elements  of  truth  which  belong  to 
each  in  a  vaster  and  completer  whole.  It  super- 
sedes them  as  daylight  supersedes  twilight;  aye, 
makes  the  twilight  by  comparison  to  be  as  the 
night.  In  part  then  it  is  by  direct  opposition  to 
what  is  positively  evil,  in  part  by  sympathetic 
recognition  of  the  elements  of  truth  in  alien 
systems,  that  we  have  to  bear  our  witness  in 
heathen  countries. 


ITS    RELATION    TO    IXDEI'IONDKNT    OPINION       83 

And  when  we  think  of  it,  do  we  not,  many  of 
us,  find  ourselves  in  the  wrong  in  this  matter? 
Do  we  not  need  to  have  it  more  on  our  consciences, 
and  in  our  prayers,  to  take  more  pains  to  interest 
our  parishioners  in  some  particular  mission  and  to 
see  that  they  know  all  about  it?  Nay  more;  do 
we  not  need  to  ask  ourselves  Avhether  it  may  not 
be  our  own  privilege  to  offer  ourselves  for  foreign 
mission  work?  There  can  be  no  question  that 
there  are  a  vast  number  of  divine  vocations  to  this 
work  missed,  simply  because  people  never  troubled 
themselves  to  ask  whether  they  may  not  them- 
selves be  called  upon  to  do  it.  Can  I  then  show 
cause  why  I  should  not  be  a  missionary? 

Brethren,  in  the  Apocalypse  there  is  set  before 
us  the  picture  of  the  perfected  Church.  It  is 
completely  catholic  —  "a  great  multitude  which 
no  man  could  number,  of  all  nations  and  kindreds 
and  people  and  tongues";  it  is  absolutely  one  — 
"the  city  that  lieth  four-square,"  and  from  within 
its  walls  goes  up  the  harmony  of  perfected  praise. 
Again,  it  is  wholly  pure ;  the  Bride  of  Christ,  in 
white  raiment,  the  perfected  righteousnesses  of 
the  saints.  Lastly  it  is  triumphant  and  acknowl- 
edged of  all,  as  "the  kings  of  the  earth  bring 
their  glory  and  honour  into  it."  Catholic,  one, 
pure,  triumphant  —  we  shall  behold  her,  but  not 
now;  we  shall  see  her,  but  not  nigh.  It  is  the 
vision  of  heaven,  but  it  is  the  liope  of  earth. 
Meanwhile  the  vision  is  for  an  appointed  time; 


84  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

and  though  it  tarry  we  are  in  wait  for  it  and  to 
have  it  constantly  in  view.  It  is  certain,  that  joy 
towards  Avhich  we  move.  There  is  certain  tri- 
umph before  the  cause  of  Christ.  Conscious  of 
this,  we  are  to  bear  our  witness,  to  suffer  and  to 
endure.  It  is  hard  to  go  on  patiently  to  the  end 
of  life  without  letting  our  ideal  fade  and  vanish; 
and  yet  it  is  herein  that  Christianity  lies.  And 
for  such  as  endure,  as  bear  their  witness  to  truth 
faithfully  and  fully  in  suffering  and  amidst  oppo- 
sition to  the  end,  we  know  the  reward.  "  Ye  are 
they  who  have  continued  with  me  in  my  tempta- 
tions; and  inasmuch  as  my  Father  appointed  a 
kingdom  unto  me,  I  appoint  unto  you  to  eat  and 
drink  at  my  table  in  my  kingdom ;  and  ye  shall 
sit  on  thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel."! 

1  St.  Luke  xxii.  29,  30. 


LECTURE   IV 

THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CHURCH  IN   SOCIETY 

"For  the  which  cause  I  put  thee  hi  remembrance  that  thou 
stir  up  (stir  into  flame)  the  gift  of  God,  which  is  in  thee  through 
the  laying  on  of  my  hands.  For  God  gave  us  not  a  spirit  of 
fearfulness  ;  but  of  power  and  love,  and  discipline." 

—  2  Tim.  ii.  6,  7  [R.V.]. 

Reverend  Father  in  God,  my  brethren  of  the 
clergy,  and  of  the  laity,  —  We  are  to  consider  the 
Mission  of  the  Church  in  Society:  its  mission  to 
teach  men  moral  and  social  principles  by  which 
they  are  to  live  according  to  the  mind  of  Christ. 


If  3"ou  read  consecutively  the  Pastoral  Epistles, 
you  will  be  struck  with  the  extent  to  which  St. 
Paul  conceives  it  to  be  the  function  of  Timothy 
and  Titus  to  be  moral  rulers.  And  this  kingly 
office  in  the  Church  means  not  only,  or  chiefly, 
that  we  are  to  teach  people  to  be  true,  to  their 
consciences,  but  even  more,  that  we  are  to  inform 
their  consciences.  For  the  cause  of  our  unsatis-' 
factory  moral  condition  is  not  only  that  men  do 

85 


86  THE   MISSION    OF    THE   CHURCH 

not  do  what  they  know  to  be  right,  but  that  they 
have  so  imperfect  a  moral  ideal.  God  has  en- 
dowed men  with  a  perception,  more  or  less  instinc- 
tive, that  they  must  do  the  right.  But  their 
knowledge  of  what  the  right  is  —  their  "con- 
scientia  "  —  is  not  instinctive.  It  requires  in- 
forming. Thus  in  fact  you  find  infinite  variety 
in  the  moral  standards  of  mankind:  and  that 
because  God  has  left  it  as  the  responsibility  of 
men  to  inform  their  consciences  according  to  the 
different  degrees  of  opportunity  which  in  different 
ages  He  has  given  them. 

Now  we  Christians  have  a  perfect  standard  set 
before  us.  We  have  the  opportunities  of  thorough 
moral  knowledge.  Thus  our  responsibility  as 
Christians  is  to  keep  our  own  consciences  enlight- 
ened; and  our  responsibility  as  teachers  is  to 
enlighten  the  consciences  of  others.  But  this 
leaves  us  a  great  deal  to  do.  What  strikes  us,  I 
repeat,  in  nominally  Christian  society  is  not  so 
much  that  people  do  not  follow  their  consciences, 
as  that  they  are  so  frequently  deficient  in  moral 
knowledge,  and  more  than  this,  blind  to  the 
resj)onsibility  they  are  under  of  keeping  their 
consciences  responsive  to  the  word  of  God. 

When  we  look  back  over  history  we  wonder  at 
the  slackness  of  men's  consciences  in  the  past  on 
points  which  seem  to  us  clear  enough.  We  exam- 
ine the  instruments  of  torture  in  some  old  house 
of  the  Inquisition,  and  marvel  how  men  could 
ever  have  been  so  blind  to  the  spirit  of  Chris- 


MISSION    OF   THE   CHUKCH  IN   SOCIETY         87 

tianity  as  to  tolerate  religious  persecution  at  all, 
or,  in  particular,  such  methods  of  persecution. 
Or,  to  come  to  times  nearer  our  own,  we  profess 
the  greatest  astonishment  that  members  of  our 
Houses  of  Parliament  should  have  allowed  them- 
selves to  accept  bribes  almost  without  conceal- 
ment, as  in  fact  the  history  of  the  last  century 
records  that  they  did.  Or  we  read  the  history  of 
the  Church  in  Wales,  in  the  sadly  recent  days 
when  bishops  w^ere  constantly  non-resident,  and 
we  can  hardly  conceive  how  such  a  standard  of 
conscience  as  to  spiritual  duties  could  ever  have 
prevailed.  We  wonder  at  the  blindness  of  the 
consciences  of  men  in  past  times;  but  we  forget 
that,  unless  we  are  very  careful,  we  are  in  danger 
of  exactly  the  same  blindness,  and  that  perhaps  on 
points  to  which  the  mediaeval  conscience  or  the 
conscience  of  the  past  century  was  more  sensitive 
than  ours.  At  any  rate  it  is  a  constant  law  oil 
moral  deterioration,  as  applicable  to  ourselves  as  I 
to  men  of  other  ages,  that  conscience  sinks  to  the  1 
level  of  practice. 

It  is  not  pleasant  to  mention  particular  points 
on  which  our  conscience  to-day  seems  to  need 
re-adjustment  to  the  standard  of  Christ,  but  I  can 
hardly  evade  the  necessity.  Thus  it  seems  to  me 
a  conspicuous  instance  of  moral  blindness,  that 
people  should  fail  to  see  that  in  investing  their 
money  they  make  themselves  —  within  reasonable 
limits,  but  really  —  responsible  for  the  use  to 
which  their  money   is   put:    that    to    put    one's 


««  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHUIICH 

money,  or  allow  it  to  be  put,  into  any  "  concern  " 
Avithout  inquiry  into  the  moral  or  social  tendency 
of  the  concern,  is  to  serve  mammon  at  the  expense 
of  Christ.  We  cannot,  in  fact,  hedge  off  any 
department  of  our  life,  and  conduct  it  on  what  we 
call  "purely  commercial  princij^les  "  without  refer- 
ence to  moral  considei^ations.  The  "mammon  of 
unrighteousness,"  the  money  that  has  been  too 
long  appropriated  to  unrighteous  uses,  has  to  be 
used  by  the  servant  of  Christ  to  make  to  himself 
friends  for  eternity  —  in  view  therefore  of  eternal 
interests.  In  buying  and  selling,  as  in  other 
respects,  we  are  to  "seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God."  And  no  one  can  tell  what  a  difference  it 
would  make  in  the  commercial  world  if  it  was 
known  that  the  ears  of  Christians  were  alert  to 
the  calls  of  justice  —  that  they  would  at  once 
recognize  it  as  their  duty  to  refuse  their  support 
to  any  business  the  conduct  of  which  involved 
oppression  or  unfairness. 

Let  me  take  quite  a  different  instance.  How 
extraordinarily  blind  are  multitudes  of  Church 
people,  in  the  highest  not  one  whit  less  than  in 
the  lowest  classes,  to  their  responsibility  for  the 
religious  education  of  their  children,  for  seeing 
that  their  children  really  are  instructed  in  those 
matters  which  form  the  contents  of  the  Church 
Catechism,  and  in  Holy  Scripture. 

It  would  not  be  hard  to  multiply  instances  of  a 
defective  conscience;  but  it  is  enough  to  notice 
these  two,  in  which  we  seem  to  have  fallen  below 


MISSION   OF   THE  CHURCH  IN   SOCIETY         89 

the  standard  of  past  Christian  ages.  Who,  I  ask, 
coukl  read  the  New  Testament  for  the  first  time  and 
imagine  that  Christian  people,  tlie  people  who  pro- 
fess to  follow  the  teaching  contained  in  it,  could  be 
indifferent  on  the  points  which  I  have  mentioned  ? 

II 

How  then  and  on  what  authority  are  wo  to  seek 
to  instruct  men's  consciences  on  the  Christian 
moral  law  ?  That  law  has,  in  principle,  been  laid 
down  for  us  by  our  Lord  in  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  and  elsewhere,  and  the  New  Testament  is 
full  of  comments  on  this  moral  law  of  Christ. 
Further,  you  find  that  the  Church  was  plainly 
invested  by  our  Lord  with  the  power  of  re-apply- 
ing, from  age  to  age,  this  moral  law  to  the  varying 
needs  and  circumstances  of  different  generations. 
In  other  words,  our  Lord  endowed  the  Church 
with  the  power  of  binding  and  loosing.  He  gave 
this  power  to  the  Church  in  the  person  of  the 
representative  apostle  Peter;  He  recognized  it 
also  in  the  community  as  a  whole. ^  In  what 
different  senses  the  power  inheres  in  the  Church 
and  in  the  apostolic  ministry  Ave  are  not  now  con- 
cerned to  inquire.  We  can  be  satisfied  with  the 
fact  which  lies  plainly  on  the  surface  of  Holy 
Scripture:  the  Church  was  endowed  with  this 
power  of  binding  and  loosing. 

And  there  is  no  doubt  what  this  means,  because 

1  St.  Matt.  xvi.  10  ;  xviii.  18. 


90  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

binding  and  loosing  Avere  perfectly  well-known 
terms  in  our  Lord's  day.  They  were  terms  used 
of  the  Rabbis  or  Jewish  masters.  To  bind  was  to 
prohibit  a  thing;  to  loose  was  to  allow  a  thing. 
A  strict  Eabbi  was  said  to  "bind,"  or  forbid,  what 
a  Rabbi  of  a  laxer  school  would  "loose  "  or  allow. ^ 

Our  Lord  then  endowed  the  Church  with  this 
legislative  and  judicial  power  to  bind  and  loose; 
and  though,  no  doubt,  behind  all  mistakes  of  the 
Church  there  lies  the  corrective  justice  of  God, 
which  He  never  can  surrender  out  of  His  own 
hands,  yet  the  Church  was  intended  to  exercise 
this  power,  and  that  with  a  spiritual  or  super- 
natural sanction.  "Whatsoever  ye  shall  bind  on 
earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven;  and  whatsoever 
ye  shall  loose  on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven." 
In  a  word,  the  Church  in  every  age  is  to  apply  or 
re -apply  with  a  spiritual  or  supernatural  sanction 
the  religious  and  moral  truth  which  our  Lord 
intended  to  be  for  all  time  the  basis  of  her  life. 

On  the  basis  of  this  moral  legislation,  there  was 
to  be  a  moral  discipline  which  is  expressed  in  the 
absolving  and  retaining  of  sins.^  The  Church  was 
to  decide  who  could  and  who  could  not  be  admitted 
to  baptism,  to  that  "baptism  for  the  remission  of 
sins,"  which  is  the  primary  absolution.  And 
when  persons  who  had  been  baptized  were  guilty 
of  notorious  breaches  of  the  Christian  law,  they 
were  to  be  excluded  from   the  privilege    of   the 

1  See  Ederslieim,  Jesus  the  Messiah  (Longmans,  2nd  ed.),  ii, 
p.  85,  ^  St.  John  XX.  23. 


MISSION   OF   THE   CliUPwCH   IN   SOCIETY  91 

Christian  society  —  there  was  to  be  a  "retaining" 
of  their  sins;  and  again,  when  the  Church  Avas 
satisfied  of  their  repentance,  a  re-admission  to  the 
Christian  status,  or  a  renewed  "absolution."  So 
the  Church  was  to  exercise  a  disciplinary  author- 
ity over  her  members.  We  can  see  examples  of 
this  authority  in  exercise  plainly  enough  in  the 
New  Testament.  Thus  in  the  fifteenth  chapter  of 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  we  have  an  instance  of 
how  the  Church  exercised  the  binding  and  loosing 
power  when  circumstances  required  it,  "  loosing  " 
the  gentile  converts  on  the  question  of  circum- 
cision, whilst  she  "bound"  them  on  certain  other 
points,  on  the  eating  of  things  strangled  and 
things  offered  to  idols;  and  on  a  sin  conspicu- 
ously associated  with  idolatry,  the  sin  of  fornica- 
tion. Or  again  we  see  the  disciplinary  authorit}' 
applied  to  a  person  in  the  case  of  the  incestuous 
man  at  Corinth.  The  Corinthian  Christians,  in 
what  we  may  call  the  spirit  of  weak  good-nature, 
were  disposed  to  tolerate  the  sinner  and  his  sin 
in  their  society.  St.  Paul  sternly  rebukes  them. 
He  tells  them  that  while  it  is  not  the  Christian 
function  to  "judge  those  that  are  without,"  they 
were  bound  to  exercise  judgment  upon  those 
within.  Thus  he  requires  them  to  exclude  the 
offender  from  the  Christian  communion,  until  — 
as  We  seem  to  find  in  the  Second  Epistle  —  he  had 
exhibited  marks  of  true  repentance;  and  then, 
"lest  he  be  swalloAved  up  with  over-much  sor- 
row," he  desires  him  to  be  received  back,  and  he 


92  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

himself  admits  liim.  "To  whom  ye  forgive  any- 
thing, I  forgive  also:  for  if  I  forgave  anything,  to 
whom  I  forgave  it,  for  your  sakes  forgave  I  it  in 
the  person  of  Christ.  "^  The  Christian  society, 
then,  is  constantly  to  enunciate  and  re-apply  the 
moral  law,  and  to  exercise  discipline  on  the  basis 
of  this  law ;  to  exclude  from  fellowship  those  who 
are  notoriously  living  in  violation  of  it,  and  to 
re-admit  them  to  fellowship  when  they  again 
show  themselves  worthy  of  it. 

Ill 

How  is  it  that  such  obvious  principles  of  the 
Christian  society  have  fallen  into  abeyance?  I 
would  point  to  two  main  causes  of  this  disorder. 

1.  The  first  is  to  be  sought  in  the  history  of 
penitential  discipline  in  the  middle  ages.  At 
first  this  discipline  had  been  exercised  in  part 
publicly,  in  part  privately;  later  on,  for  suffi- 
ciently obvious  reasons,  it  became  generally  pri- 
vate. Still  later,  this  private  confession  was 
made  compulsory  after  having  been  voluntary  for 
many  centuries.  In  being  made  compulsory,  its 
moral  level  was  necessarily  lowered.  As  a  result 
of  this  lowering  of  the  moral  level  of  penitence, 
casuistry  —  which  means  the  application  of  the 
general  moral  law  to  particular  cases  —  came  to  be 
almost  entirely  what  it  ought  not  to  have  been  — 
a    negative    thing;   not   an    enunciation    of    how 

1  1  Cor.  V.  ;  2  Cor.  ii.  5-11, 


MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH    IN    SOCIETY  93 

Christ  would  have  men  act,  or  of  what  Christians 
ought  to  do;  but  rather  an  attempt  to  minimize 
the  moral  requirement,  to  reduce  it  to  its  lowest 
possible  terms,  to  liiid  the  easiest  possible  basis 
on  which  the  priest  could  give  absolution  to  the 
penitent.  It  was  but  a  step  from  this  that  cas- 
uistry should  become,  what  tlie  casuistry  of  the 
Jesuits  had  in  great  measure  become  when  Pascal 
exposed  it  in  his  incomparable  Lettres  Provhi- 
ciales,  an  evasion  of  the  plain  moral  requirement 
of  God  in  order  to  keep  slack  consciences  within 
the  communion  of  the  Church. 

2.  But  the  cause  of  the  decay  of  moral  disci- 
pline in  our  own  Church  has  been  a  different  one 
—  the  peculiar  relation  in  which  the  Church 
stands  to  the  State,  a  relation  which  demands  a 
word  of  explanation. 

As  you  look  at  the  New  Testament,  you  see, 
Avithout  doubt,  that  the  Church  and  the  State  are 
both  divine  institutions.  The  ministers  of  State 
are  called  God's  ministers, ^  as  the  ministers  of 
the  Church  are  called  God's  ministers.  Both  are 
divine  institutions,  but  they  exist  on  different 
planes,  and  for  different  objects;  the  State  to  be 
the  minister  of  justice  in  the  society  of  men  gen- 
erally ;  the  Church  to  be  the  minister  to  the  sons 
of  faith  of  the  fuller  and  deeper  blessings  included 
in  Christ's  redemption. 

Subsequent  history  has  shown  how  difficult  is 
the  adjustment  of  the  relations  of  these  two  soci- 

1  Rom.  xiii.  1-6. 


94  THE   MISSION    OF   THE    CHURCH 

eties.  At  first  they  were  obviously  independent; 
and  Cliristians  liad  no  doubt  at  all  about  the  duty 
of  recognizing  that  the  powers  of  civil  society, 
"pagan"  as  it  was,  were  ordained  of  God.  On 
the  other  hand,  civil  society  —  that  is,  the  Roman 
Empire  —  came  to  look  suspiciously  upon  the 
Christian  Church,  an  "  imperium  in  imperio  "  as 
it  seemed  to  be,  and  in  the  age  of  persecution 
attempted  to  stamp  it  out  by  mere  violence.  We 
know  how  that  attempt  failed.  The  tables  were 
turned.  Later  on,  in  the  great  days  of  the 
Papacy,  we  become  witnesses  of  the  rival  attempt 
to  reduce  the  State  into  subordination  to  the 
Church.  Again  the  attempt  failed.  The  obvious 
logic  of  facts  was  too  much  for  the  theory  of  the 
papal  sovereignty  on  which  it  was  based.  There 
follows  another  attempt,  which  had  its  chief 
expression  in  England,  and  especially  at  the 
period  of  the  Reformation,  the  attempt  to  regard 
the  Church  and  the  State  as  in  fact  the  same  soci- 
ety in  different  aspects.  Such  a  theory  has  found 
its  noblest  expression  in  the  pages  of  Hooker.  At 
bottom  it  rests  upon  the  assumption  that,  inas- 
much as  the  State  is  committed  to  Christian  prin- 
ciples, the  Church  can  go  far  towards  merging 
herself  in  the  State,  and,  in  great  measure,  allow 
her  administrative  independence  to  be  taken  from 
her  in  return  for  national  position. 

It  was  a  noble  ideal;  but  an  ideal  on  which 
subsequent  events  have  cast  a  sinister  light.  To 
how  small  an  extent  can  it  be  said  that  the  Eng- 


MISSION    OF   THE   CHUIICH    IN    S(JCIETY  95 

lish  monarchy  or  nation  has  hekl  itself  bound  by 
the  principles  of  the  Church.  We  live  now  under 
democratic  influences.  The  law  of  the  State 
depends  on  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  nation. 
AVhat  likelihood  is  there  that  the  will  of  the 
majority  should  submit  itself  to  the  law  of  Christ? 
And  if  it  be  unlikely,  what  right  had  the  Church 
to  hamper  her  liberty  to  express  and  enforce  by 
moral  discipline  on  her  own  members  the  unchang- 
ing law  of  Christ  ? 

In  fact,  it  has  come  about  that  the  English 
State  law,  as  for  example  by  the  Divorce  Act,  has 
traversed  the  law  of  Christ.  And  the  calamitous 
thing  is  this  —  that  in  nominally  Christian  soci- 
ety, there  is  extraordinarily  little  apprehension  of 
the  fact  that,  as  Christians,  men  are  under  another 
laAV  besides  the  law  of  the  State.  They  are  citi- 
zens, and  as  citizens  they  are  bound  to  obey  the 
State  law  in  what  belongs  to  State  laAv ;  but  they 
are  Christians  also,  and  as  Christians  they  are 
bound  to  obey  another  law,  the  law  of  the  Church; 
and  it  is  no  excuse  for  them,  as  Christians,  that 
the  law  of  the  State  does  not  enforce  the  law  of 
Christ.  They  will  be  judged  as  Christians  by  the 
Christian  law. 

It  is,  then,  at  the  present  moment  one  main 
duty  of  the  English  Church  to  recall  to  the  mind 
of  her  own  members,  and  so  to  the  minds  of 
others,  that  there  is  an  authority  committed  to  her 
which  is  fundamentally  independent  of  the  func- 
tions and  authority  of  the  State ;  that,  in  the  last 


96  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

issue,  the  duty  of  teaching  and  guarding  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christian  doctrine,  discipline,  and  wor- 
ship, Avas  committed  by  Christ  to  one  divine 
society,  the  Church;  and  not  to  that  other  divine 
society,  with  separate  functions,  the  State. 

IV 

In  view  of  the  situation  and  perils  which  I  have 
now  described,  we  have,  I  think,  two  obvious 
duties  over  and  above  the  general  reassertion  of 
the  ecclesiastical  principle :  — 

1.  We  must  get  people  to  recognize  the  prin- 
ciple of  Christian  moral  discipline.  It  is  a  plain 
fact,  that  Christ  enunciated  unchanging  moral 
principles.  The  laws  of  men,  the  opinions  of 
society,  the  policies  of  statesmen,  all  may  change ; 
but  the  mind  of  Christ  for  His  disciples  does  not 
change.  He  is  "  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
for  ever."  And  it  is  by  the  principles  which  He 
once  for  all  enunciated  that  He  will  judge  the 
world.  We  have  to  get  men  to  recognize  this. 
And  in  proportion  as  this  is  recognized,  will  there 
arise  the  possibility  of  legitimate  Christian  dis- 
cipline. This  revival  of  Christian  discipline  on 
the  basis  of  the  moral  law  is  a  hard  thing  to  accom- 
plish—  nay,  it  may  appear  impossible,  but  dili- 
gent voluntary  effort  can,  I  believe,  accomplish 
it.  Think  what  voluntary  effort  has  done  in  the 
last  fifty  years  in  the  revival  of  theology. 
Whether  you  approve  or  do  not  approve  of  the 


MISSION  OF  thp:  church  in  socip:ty       97 

Tractarian  revival  you  can  learn  one  great  lesson 
from  it;  you  can  learn  the  almost  boundless  power 
of  a  voluntary  combination  of  Christian  men  pro- 
foundly in  earnest.  The  circumstances  looked 
hopeless  enough  for  the  revival  of  definite  Church 
doctrine  when  the  Tractarians  began  their  work; 
but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  voluntary  coml^ina- 
tion  has  accomplished  to  a  surprising  degree  and 
in  spite  of  crushing  disasters  what  it  ^desired. 
Dr.  Pusey  in  his  old  age  used  to  look  back  on  the 
history  of  his  life,  with  all  its  vicissitudes,  and 
sum  up  his  experience  in  the  words  of  the  Psalm- 
ist: "Thanks  be  to  God  that  he  hath  not  cast  out 
my  prayer,  nor  turned  his  mercy  from  me."  Now 
we  want  a  similar  sort  of  voluntary  combination 
for  the  assertion  of  the  moral  law  of  Christianity, 
and  the  restoration  of  that  discipline,  which  is,  I 
believe,  a  necessary  part  of  the  healthy  life  of  any 
Christian  society.  No  Christian  society  can  be 
healthy  unless  there  is  some  obvious  means  by 
which  those  acting  in  open  defiance  of  Christian 
law  shall  forfeit,  not  the  privileges  of  citizenship, 
but  the  privileges  of  Christian  communion. 

2.  In  order  to  this  end  we  need  to  formulate 
anew,  to  apply  anew.  Christian  morality :  for  the 
principles  which  by  word  and  example  our  Lord 
laid  down  for  His  Church  need  constant  re-appli- 
cation in  view  of  new  circumstances.  We  want  a 
new  casuistry,  which  will  not  be  a  statement  of 
the  minimum  requirement,  but  an  exposition  of 
how  Christians  ought  to  act  in  the  different  depart- 


98  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

ments  of  social  life.  This  new  casuistry  will  need 
to  be  formulated  by  voluntary  effort  in  the  first 
place,  and  might  afterwards  be  taken  into  consid- 
eration by  the  authorities  in  the  Church. 

I  will  endeavour  to  specify  some  particular 
departments  of  life  in  which  the  Christian  moral 
law  needs  to  be  reapplied  or  at  least  reasserted. 

First,  then,  in,  regard  to  the  indissolubleness  of 
the  marriage  tie.  Here  it  is  true  we  are  not  with- 
out quite  recent  guidance.  The  last  Pan- Angli- 
can Conference,  leaving  open  one  disputed  point, 
laid  down  a  certain  number  of  clear  principles.^ 
Here  then  something  still  needs  to  be  done  in  the 
way  of  enunciating  the  law;  and,  Avhen  this  is 
done,  we  want  every  Churchman  to  understand 
clearly  what  the  Christian  marriage  law  is,  and 
that  it  is  the  law  for  Christian  men  and  Avomen, 
not  merely  as  individuals  in  private  life,  but  as 
members  of  the  Christian  society,  who  are  bound 
to  "  judge  "  their  fellows  in  respect  of  it  so  long 
as  they  are  claiming  to  be  members  of  the  Church 
of  Christ.  2 

And,  secondly,  in  regard  to  commercial  moral- 
ity. That  is  a  matter  of  much  more  delicacy  and 
difficulty.  We  know  that  a  great  deal  contrary  to 
Christian  honesty,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  charity 
and  brotherhood  among  classes,  goes  on  in  the 
commercial  world.  And  as  Christian  teachers  we 
are  deterred  from  speaking  out  on  the  subject  not 
only  by  fear  of  offending,  but  by  a  Avorthier 
1  See  app.  note  16.  2  i-  Cor.  v.  12,  13. 


MISSION   OF   THE  CHURCH  IN   SOCIETY         99 

motive  —  the  fear  of  speaking  ignorantly  on  a 
matter  on  which  ignorant  invective  is  sure  to  do 
a  great  deal  of  harm.  We  Avant  then  to  organize 
on  these  matters  all  enlightened  Christian  opin- 
ion. The  first  step  to  this  is  to  form  small  con- 
sultative bodies  of  men  who  know  exactly  what 
life  means  in  workshops,  in  different  business 
circles,  among  employers  of  labour,  among  work- 
men ;  they  must  be  men  who  combine  a  profound 
practical  Christianity  with  thorough  knowledge  of 
business  ways.  Such  men  could  supply  really 
trustworthy  information  as  to  what  is  wrong  in 
current  practice,  and  as  to  the  sort  of  typical  acts 
and  refusals  to  act  in  which  genuine  Christianity 
would  show  itself.  Such  consultation  on  an 
extensive  and  systematic  scale  is  a  necessary  pre- 
liminary to  any  adequate  Christian  casuistry,  and 
to  the  organization  of  a  legitimate  Christian  moral 
opinion. 

Thirdly,  we  clearly  need  careful  re-statement 
for  Christians  of  the  responsibility  of  wealth. 
Strong  and  solemn  are  St.  Paul's  words.  "Hav- 
ing food  and  raiment,  let  us  be  therewith  content. 
But  they  that  will  be  rich  fall  into  temptation  and 
a  snare,  and  into  many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts, 
which  drown  men  in  destruction  and  perdition. 
For  the  love  of  money  is  a  root  of  all  evil;  which 
while  some  coveted  after,  they  have  erred  from 
the  faith,  and  pierced  themselves  through  with 
many  sorrows. "1  One  of  the  most  distinguished 
1  1  Tim.  vi.  8-10. 


100  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

of  living  men  I  once  heard  say  that  luxury  was 
like  the  strings  with  which  the  Liliputians  tied 
Gulliver;  each  thread  was  weak  in  itself  so  that 
any  one  could  break  it,  but  together  they  held  him 
fast  more  tightly  than  strong  cords.  So  with  the 
little  things  of  luxury;  they  grow  upon  people, 
the  things  we  say  we  "cannot  do  without."  In 
their  accumulation  they  tie  society  down,  and 
make  us  the  slaves  of  innumerable  wants  not 
really  requisite  for  life,  or  health,  or  happiness. 
We  want  to  re-state  the  obligation  of  Christian 
simplicity.  We  want  to  press  upon  Christians 
the  conviction  that  wealth  is  not  a  justification  of 
selfish  luxury,  but  a  solemn  trust  for  the  good  of 
mankind.  Beyond  all  question,  whatever  may  be 
the  function  of  the  State  in  regard  to  wealth,  it  is 
the  function  of  the  Christian  Church  to  emphasize 
the  responsibility  which  it  involves  upon  the  con- 
sciences of  its  members  more,  very  much  more, 
than  has  been  done  in  the  past. 

Lastly,  in  regard  to  the  position  of  women  in 
view  of  the  modern  movement  for  what  is  called 
her  emancipation.  Obviously  this  is  a  matter  on 
which  the  Christian  Church  is  bound  to  have  clear 
teaching,  and  to  make  it  heard.  I  believe  that 
no  society  or  system  could  put  women  so  high  as 
Christianity  puts  them,  or  could  give  so  great  a 
dignity  to  womanhood  as  Christianity  gives  it. 
But  Christianity  dignifies  womanhood  not  by 
ignoring  or  confusing  the  differences,  physiologi- 
cal and  moral,   which   obtain   between  men  and 


MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH   IN   SOCIETY       101 

women;  but  by  assigning  them  distinct  spheres, 
in  view  of  the  distinctive  characteristics,  which 
all  experience  at  least  justifies  us  in  attaching  to 
the  sexes. 

What  is  the  position  of  women  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture? There  is  the  position  of  the  wife,  that 
position  at  the  head  of  the  household  which  is 
held  up  to  our  admiration  in  the  memorable  pan- 
egyric upon  the  mistress  of  the  household  in  the 
last  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs.  Is  there 
any  position  in  life  more  dignified?  Is  there  any 
priesthood  higher  than  the  ministry  of  the  mother 
of  the  family?  And  then  there  is  that  ministry  of 
mercy,  belonging  in  a  measure  specially  to  unmar- 
ried Avomen  and  widoAVS.  These,  St.  Paul  says, 
are  in  a  special  sense  free  to  consecrate  themselves 
to  the  service  of  Christ  and  His  j)00t.  This  is 
the  second  position  for  women  that  Holy  Scripture 
recognizes.  It  was  the  shame  of  our  societ}^  fifty 
years  ago  that  it  had  so  largely  taken  aAva}'  the 
dignity  of  unmarried  life  or  failed  to  recognize  it. 
Besides  the  normal  positions  of  women,  we  must 
also  recognize  exceptional  cases:  —  there  are  in 
the  New  Testament  prophetesses,  like  Philip's 
daughters.  This  position,  I  suppose,  corresponds 
more  or  less  to  what  we  see  in  the  case  of  a  St. 
Catherine  or  a  St.  Theresa,  if  not  to  the  extraor- 
dinary mission  of  a  Joan  of  Arc.  These  are 
clearly  exceptional  cases.  The  position  of  a  pub- 
lic preacher,  or  active  politician,  the  Church 
would  not,   I  suppose,  normally  recognize  as  ap- 


102  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

propriate  to  women.  The  inclination  to  such 
positions  she  wouhl,  I  think,  with  the  authority 
of  the  New  Testament  behind  her,  keep  under 
severe  restraint,  and  woukl  only  allow  of  such 
missions  when  there  was  an  over-mastering  sense 
of  divine  vocation. 

I  do  not  want  to  go  into  details.  My  object  has 
been  rather  to  quicken  our  consciousness  of  the 
moral  mission  of  the  Church.  But  I  have  endeav- 
oured, to  specify  four  departments  in  which  w^e 
need  to  think  out  and  re-state  what  is  the  Chris- 
tian moral  law.  The  Church  ought  to  be  giving 
clearer  teaching  than  in  fact  she  is  giving  in  regard 
to  the  law  of  marriage,  in  regard  to  commercial 
morality,  in  regard  to  the  responsibility  of  wealth, 
in  regard  to  the  position  and  true  dignity  of  women. 

In  the  past  sixty  years  there  has  been  a  great 
advance  among  us  along  what  one  may  call  the 
lines  of  personal  sanctification,  and  also  in  devel- 
oping special  forms  of  religious  self-dedication. 
Wonderful,  surely,  has  been  the  development  of 
the  nursing  profession,  and  of  sisterhoods,  the 
revival  of  spiritual  discipline,  of  the  ideal  of  the 
priesthood  and  of  the  evangelical  freedom  of 
the  celibate  life.  All  this  that  God  has  done 
among  us  gives  us  the  greatest  cause  for  encour- 
agement. What  now  seems  to  be  needed,  is  that 
we  should  pay  special  attention  to  the  sanctifica- 
tion of  common  social  life,^  laying  down  in  clear 

1  See  in  the  DuhUn  Jievicw,  July,  1892,  an  article  by  Dr. 
Barry  on  tlie  life  of  Yr.  Hecker,  pp.  80-2. 


MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH   IN   SOCIETY       103 

terms  the  moral  law  of  Christianity  and  pressing 
its  fuller  observance  upon  the  conscience  of 
Churchmen.  Thus  the  world  will  understand 
that,  as  the  Church  has  a  distinct  creed  and  a  dis- 
tinct worship,  so  she  has  also  a  distinctive  moral 
law  for  social  life,  which  is  to  be  her  character- 
istic mark  in  all  sorts  of  societies  and  under  all 
sorts  of  conditions. 


This  moral  law,  unchanging  as  it  is,  we  are  to 
seek  to  commend  to  the  consciences  of  all  men, 
specially  by  finding  its  affinity  to  the  moral  ten- 
dencies and  aspirations  of  our  own  time.  We  are 
to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times,  for  good  as  for 
evil:  always  to  keep  our  eye  on  the  unchanging 
law  of  Christ,  and  also  alwaj^s  on  the  changing 
wants  and  aspirations  of  men  round  about  us ;  so 
shall  we  fill  the  office  of  interpreters  translating 
the  ancient  precepts  into  current  language,  bring- 
ing forth  out  of  our  treasures,  like  wise  stewards, 
things  new  and  old,  commending  our  message  to 
every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Whv  do  we  not  discern  the  sis^ns  of  the  times  ? 
If  we  look  abroad  and  ask  what  is  the  meaning  of 
the  current  body  of  right  social  aspiration  in  the 
world  to-day,  you  find  it  such  as  is  not  infre- 
quently expressed  in  the  word  socialism.  Now 
socialism  is  generally  taken  to  imply  a  certain 
policy  in  regard   to  the  functions   of  the   State, 


104  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH 

with  which  we  need  not  now  concern  ourselves. 
In  the  New  Testament  the  function  assigned  to 
the  State  is  that  of  administering  the  divine  law 
of  justice  among  men,  and  for  the  realization  of 
this  function  among  ourselves  a  good  deal  still 
remains  for  political  reforms  to  accomplish. 
Whether  the  Christian  law,  so  far  as  it  may  be 
said  to  go  beyond  the  law  of  justice,  can  ever 
become  the  law  of  the  State  is  another  question. 
But  socialism  expresses  not  only  a  state  policy  but 
also  a  moral  ideal.  As  a  moral  ideal  it  is  pro- 
foundly Christian,  and  I  believe  that  the  great 
Christian  principle  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  as 
based  upon,  the  fatherhood  of  God  sums  up  all 
that  is  best  in  the  social  and  moral  aspiration  of 
our  time,  whether  it  does  or  does  not  call  itself 
Christian.  In  past  ages  we  have  allowed  Calvin- 
ism to  rob  the  imagination  of  Christians  of  that 
rich  treasure,  that  master-thought,  of  the  father- 
hood of  God  —  His  impartial,  individual,  disci- 
plinary love  for  all  men  whom  He  has  created: 
also  we  have  allowed  the  love  of  luxur}^  and  power 
in  privileged  classes  to  rob  us  of  the  correspond- 
ing truth  of  the  brotherhood  of  men  —  the  capacity 
of  all  men  for  brotherhood  and  the  realization  of 
that  capacity  in  the  "  brotherhood  "  of  the  Church. 
The  time  has  come  to  restore  to  men's  minds  and 
hearts  the  full  vivid  power  of  these  central  con- 
ceptions. 

It  is  a  department  of  this  work  of  restoration, 
to  bring  back  into  general  recognition  the  origi- 


MISSION   OF  THE   CHURCH   IN   SOCIETY       105 

nally  representative  and  fraternal  character  of  the 
institutions  of  the  Church.  Thus  the  Christian 
ministry,  the  Christian  episcopate,  runs  back 
behind  the  association  with  which  it  has  become 
encrusted  in  daj^s  of  English  aristocracy  and  medi- 
aeval feudalism.  It  runs  back  to  what  one  may 
call  the  constitutional  fraternity  of  the  early 
Church.  In  the  Church  of  the  Empire  the  epis-  \ 
copate,  and  indeed  the  presbyterate  also,  had  a 
representative  character.  Real  representative  gov- 
ernment may  be  said  to  have  had  its  origin  in  the 
Christian  ministry.  These  Church  officers  were 
indeed  ordained  from  above,  in  accordance  with 
the  principle  of  apostolic  succession;  but  they 
were  elected  in  correspondence  with  the  represent- 
ative principle.  And  patristic  writers  emphasized 
this  representative  character  of  Church  officers 
sometimes,  it  seems,  almost  as  much  as  the  neces- 
sity of  due  and  proper  ordination  and  succession.^ 
These  are  principles  to  which  we  cannot  return 
hurriedly,  and  their  application  at  this  particular 
moment  is  complicated  by  a  dominant  fallacy  — 
the  identification  of  the  Christian  layman  with 
the  English  citizen.  Now  it  is  in  every  organiza- 
tion of  men  a  fundamental  principle  that  social 
rights  only  correspond  to  social  duties  done. 
Where  people  are  not  living  by  their  Church 
principles,  and  doing  their  duty  as  Churchmen, 
they  lose  the  rights  and  privileges  of  Churchmen. 
But  when  this  misunderstanding  has  been  cleared 
1  See  The  Church  and  the  Ministry,  pp.  97-107. 


106  THE   MISSION    OF   THE    CHURCH 

away,  and  the  layman  is  recognized  to  be  one 
fulfilling  his  Church  obligations,  the  principle  of 
representation  ought  to  be  applied.  We  do,  then, 
need  to  watch  and  pray  and  labour  for  the  recovery 
of  that  more  truly  representative  character  which 
did  belong  to  Church  institutions  in  early  times. 

I  have  come  to  the  end  of  that  small  portion  of 
a  great  task  which  it  has  been  possible  even  to 
attempt  to  accomplish  in  four  lectures.  I  have 
been  speaking  of  the  nature  of  the  Church's  mis- 
sion and  of  some  of  the  tasks  which  lie  before  her. 
Before  we  separate  let  me  say  a  word  of  the  power 
in  which  we  go  forth  to  our  duty. 

VI 

We  believe  that  Christ,  on  whom  our  faith  and 
hope  and  love  are  fixed,  is  the  master  of  all  ages 
and  of  all  men.  It  is  true  of  every  great  man 
that  he  passes  in  a  measure  beyond  the  conditions 
of  a  particular  age,  and  gains  a  certain  universal- 
ity; it  is  true  in  a  unique  sense  of  Christ.  He 
was  very  God.  He  took  our  manhood  into  His 
divine  personality.  The  result  is  a  character 
which  is  truly  human,  but  which  has  none  of  the 
limitations  which  narrow  human  nature.  He 
took  those  limitations  which  belong  necessarily 
to  humanity  —  the  limitations  which  make  possi- 
ble the  exercise  of  a  reall}^  human  faith  and  virtue 
—  not  the  limitations  which  characterize  an  Eng- 
lishman, or  a  Chinaman,  or  a  particular  age,   or 


MISSION    OF   THE   CHURCH    IN    SOCIETY       107 

sex,  or  class.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  catholic  man ; 
His  appeal  is  to  all  men  of  all  ages.  His  example 
is  universal;  His  teaching  is  applicable  to  all 
time;  and  the  grace  which  makes  it  possible  for 
us  really  to  correspond  to  His  appeal,  to  follow 
His  example,  to  accept  His  teaching,  is  nothing 
short  of  the  communication  to  us  of  His  own 
unchanging  self,  His  own  eternal  and  His  human 
spirit.  It  is  the  inward  presence  of  Jesus  Christ, 
the  inward  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  Him, 
that  makes  His  example  always,  for  the  sons  of 
faith,  practical  and  realizable.  For  Jesus  who  is 
"passed  into  the  heavens,"  "made  higher  than  the 
heavens,"  is  yet  by  the  Spirit  brought  nearer  to  us 
than  ever  He  was  to  the  Apostles  on  earth;  the 
Spirit  links  the  humanity  of  every  member  of  the 
Lord's  body  to  Him  as  He  sits  in  glorified  man- 
hood at  the  right  hand  of  God.  The  Spirit's 
presence  is  the  presence  of  Jesus,  as  the  presence 
of  Jesus  is  the  presence  of  the  Father,  for  the 
holy  persons  of  the  Trinity  are  in  inseparable 
unity.  Thus  the  Christ,  God  in  manhood,  is 
present  in  the  Christian,  in  as  true  a  sense  of  the 
word  "presence  "  as  that  word  can  bear,  by  spirit- 
ual force  and  reality.  Christ  in  us  is  the  hope  of 
glory.  And  He,  whose  example  we  have  before 
our  eyes  in  the  pages  of  the  Gospels  is  working 
inwardly  in  our  hearts,  to  purify  us  gradually  and 
mould  us  into  His  own  incomparable  likeness. 
This  which  is  the  source  of  our  own  encouragement 
gives  us  also  our  hope  for  men.     It  is  the  great 


108  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

privilege  of  the  Christian  to  look  behind  all  dis- 
couragements on  the  surface  of  humanity,  to  fasten 
upon  its  hidden  capacity  for  God,  and  to  hope  for 
every  man  who  does  not  obstinately  and  persist- 
ently refuse  the  divine  offer.  They  are  few,  we 
may  hope,  who  thus  finally  refuse  God.  We  are 
willing  rather  to  think  of  men  as  weak  and  wan- 
dering,  and  to  have  hope  for  them.  We  have 
ground  of  hope  because  we  know  what  the  love  of 
God  for  each  soul  means,  what  is  the  infinite  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God.  And  if  there  is  any 
turning  towards  God  in  the  heart  of  a  man, 
though  it  be  tentative  and  inchoate,  we  believe 
that  there  is  eternity,  there  is  the  world  beyond 
the  grave,  for  the  purpose  of  God  to  take  full 
effect. 

We  shall  lose  heart  and  courage  in  our  ministry 
except  so  far  as  our  mind  is  constantly  fixed  upon 
Christ;  both  as  giving  us  our  moral  ideal  for  men 
and  as  supplying  the  forces  of  recovery.  With 
our  eyes  fixed  upon  Christ,  and  upon  eternity,  we 
have  justification  for  believing  beyond  belief,  and 
hoping  beyond  hope  for  the  souls  of  men ;  and,  in 
fact,  our  power  of  recovering  men  depends  on  our 
power  of  hoping  for  them  and  believing  in  them. 
If  you  have  ceased  to  believe  in  any  human  soul 
you  have,  by  that  very  fact,  lost  all  chance  of 
helping  it  towards  recovery.  Your  power  of  re- 
covering men  depends  on  your  power  of  believing 
in  them;  and  your  power  of  believing  in  them 
depends  on  the  constancy  with  which  you  contem- 


MISSION   OF  THE   CHURCH   IN   SOCIETY       109 

plate  the  mind  of  Christ  towards  them  and  the 
eternal  destiny  which  lies  before  them.  It  is  not 
our  wealth,  or  position,  or  the  historical  dignity 
of  our  Church  which  will  save  men.  It  is  simply 
the  power  of  Christ.  And,  in  fact,  the  real  spirit- 
ual power  of  the  Church  has  not  risen  and  fallen 
with  its  secular  position.  There  is  a  famous 
answer  attributed,  I  believe,  to  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas  when,  on  the  occasion  of  some  Papal 
Jubilee,  the  bags  of  gold  were  being  carried  past 
into  the  treasury  of  Peter,  and  the  Pope  said  to 
him  —  "Peter  could  not  say  now,  'Silver  and  gold 
have  I  none'":  "No,  your  Blessedness,"  replied 
Thomas,  "Nor  can  he  say,  'In  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Nazareth  rise  up  and  walk.'  " 

It  is  in  the  strength  of  Jesus  then  truly  and 
literally  that  we  are  to  go  out  comforting  others 
with  the  comfort  wherewith  we  ourselves  are  com- 
forted of  God.i 

And,  oh!  do  not  narrow  that  word  comfort. 
We  are  to  minister  to  the  broken-hearted,  the 
sick,  the  weary,  the  dying;  we  are  to  comfort 
them  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  comfort,  with  abso- 
lution, and  solace,  and  peace.  But  we  have  not 
only  to  do  with  the  broken,  the  feeble,  the  ex- 
hausted, but  also  with  the  young,  the  high- 
spirited,  the  enthusiastic  and  energetic.  The 
mission  of  the  Church  applies  just  as  much  to 
these  as  to  those.  It  is  as  much  our  privilege 
and  our  duty  to  put  courage  and  confidence,  and  a 
1  See  app.  note  17. 


110  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

sense  of  service  and  hope,  into  the  hearts  of  the 
enthusiastic  and  promising,  as  it  is  to  console 
penitents,  and  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted. 
"  As  a  young  man  marrieth  a  virgin,  so  shall  thy 
sons  marry  thee."  We  must  be  inspired  by  the 
spirit  and  meaning  of  the  Church,  so  that  we  can 
present  her  to  men  as  something  that  can  enlist 
their  hopes  and  energies,  and  vitalize  all  their 
highest  faculties.  "They  that  seek  the  Lord 
shall  renew  their  strength;  they  shall  mount  up 
with  wings  as  eagles ;  they  shall  run,  and  not  be 
weary;  they  shall  walk,  and  not  faint."  We  have 
a  great  work  before  us ;  a  work  for  the  doing  of 
which  divine  encouragements  are  given ;  but  it  is 
a  work  that  needs  all  the  best  energies  that 
humanity  has  to  offer. 


APPENDED   NOTES 


Note  1,  to  p.  13. 

The  witness  to  the  doctrine  of  the  visible  Church  in  Clement 
and  Ignatius.  *'  Clement,"  says  Prof.  Pfleiderer  truly  (Hib- 
bert  Lectures,  p.  252),  "most  characteristically  connected  the 
new  law  of  the  Church  with  the  two  models  of  the  political 
and  military  organization  of  the  Roman  state  and  the  sacer- 
dotal hierarchy  of  the  Jewish  theocracy  "  (i.  e.  it  w^as  to  his 
mind  an  organized,  and  divinely  organized,  body)  :  but  the 
Professor  is  not  justified  in  regarding  this  as  in  opposition 
to  St.  Paul's  teaching  of  justification.  See  above  pp.  68  ff. 
and  The  Church  and  the  Ministry  (Longmans),  pp.  49  f.,  also 
on  Clement,  pp.  309  f.  316  f. 

The  witness  of  Clement  is  very  explicit  to  the  Church  in 
its  general  idea.  The  witness  of  Ignatius  is  much  more 
emphatic  to  the  threefold  ministry  of  bishops,  priests,  and 
deacons.  This  he  regards  (1)  as  essential  to  the  existence 
of  a  Church,  (2)  as  based  on  the  ordinances  of  the  Apostles, 
(o)  as  coextensive  with  the  Church.  See  Ch.  and  Min.,  p. 
300  f.  This  testimony  is  quite  compatible  with  that  afforded 
by  the  Didache  and  by  Clement  if  it  be  recognized  that  the 
superior  apostolic,  prophetic,  or  (in  the  later  sense)  episco- 
pal order  was  in  some  districts  not  localized  in  particular 
Churches  till  a  subsequent  date  :  see  above  pp.  29,  30,  and 
Ch.  and  Min.,  pp.  333  ff. 

Note  2,  to  p.  16. 

Archdeacon  Sinclair,  in  his  recent  charge.  The  Church, 
Invisible,  Visible,  Catholic,  National  (Eliot  Stock,  1892),  ap- 
pears to  put  the  individual  relation  of  the  soul  to  God  first, 

111 


112  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

to  regard  it  as  logically  prior  to,  and  independent  of,  church- 
membership,  and  to  make  the  association  of  Christians  into 
societies  a  subsequent  act.  See  p.  2.  "  But  just  as  believers 
having  this  personal  relation  to  their  Lord  would  be  in  a 
spiritual  sense  as  the  branches  to  the  vine,  as  the  limbs  to 
the  head,  so  they  would  naturally  form,  under  the  Divine 
guidance,  a  society  among  themselves  in  their  relation  to  each 
other  on  earth."  May  I  call  attention  on  this  subject  to  some 
words  of  the  present  bishop  of  London  in  a  noble  sermon 
entitled  "  Lidividualism  and  Catholicism."  See  Twelve  Ser- 
mons preached  at  the  consecration  of  Truro  Cathedral  (Wells, 
Gardner  &  Masters,  1888),  pp.  17-20. 

"We  are  sometimes  asked  to  think  that  the  Church  only 
exists  in  the  union  of  believers,  and  has  no  reality  of  its  own. 
Now,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  in  the  New  Testament  the  idea 
of  the  Church  is  not  that.  Men  talk  sometimes  as  if  a  church 
could  be  constituted  simply  by  Christians  coming  together 
and  uniting  themselves  into  one  body  for  the  purpose.  Men 
speak  as  if  Christians  came  first,  and  the  Church  after ;  as  if 
the  origin  of  the  Church  was  in  the  wills  of  individual  Chris- 
tians who  composed  it.  But,  on  the  contrary,  throughout  the 
teaching  of  the  Apostles  we  see  that  it  is  the  Church  that 
comes  first  and  the  members  of  it  afterwards.  Men  were  not 
brought  to  Christ  and  then  determined  that  they  would  live 
in  a  community.  Men  were  not  brought  to  Christ  to  believe 
in  Him  and  His  Cross,  and  to  recognize  the  duty  of  worship- 
ping the  Heavenly  Father  in  His  name,  and  then  decided 
that  it  would  be  a  great  help  to  their  religion  that  they 
should  join  one  another  in  that  worship,  and  should  be 
united  in  the  bonds  of  fellowship  for  that  purpose.  In  the 
New  Testament,  on  the  contrary,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  already  in  existence,  and  men  are  invited  into  it.  The 
Church  takes  its  origin,  not  in  the  will  of  man,  but  in  the 
will  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  sent  forth  His  Apostles ; 
the  Apostles  received  their  commission  from  Him  ;  they  were 
not  organs  of  the  congregation  ;  they  were  ministers  of  the 
Lord  Himself.     He  sent  them  forth  to  gather  all  the  thou- 


APPENDED   NOTES  113 

sands  that  they  could  reach  Avithin  Ilis  fold  ;  but  they  came 
first,  and  the  members  came  afterwards  ;  and  the  Church  in 
all  its  dignity  and  glory  was  quite  independent  of  the  mem- 
bers that  were  brought  within  it.  Everywhere  men  are 
called  in  ;  they  do  not  come  in,  and  make  the  Church  by 
coming.  They  are  called  in  to  that  which  already  exists ; 
they  are  recognized  as  members  when  they  aie  within  ;  but 
their  membership  depends  upon  their  admission,  and  not 
upon  their  constituting  themselves  into  a  body  in  the  sight 
of  the  Lord.  .  .  . 

"  This  individualism  of  which  I  speak  has  too  much  truth 
in  it  to  fail  in  strength.  It  cannot  be  counter-balanced  by 
anything  but  insisting  on  W'hat  the  Church  of  the  Xew  Testa- 
ment really  is;  making  men  everywhere  understand  that  the 
Church  is  a  body  which  lives  from  age  to  age  :  adapting  itself 
to  all  times  and  all  circumstances  :  finding  spiritL.al  life  for  all 
characters  ;  supplying  the  means  of  grace  for  every  variety 
in  humanity.  It  is  for  this  that  w^e  insist  upon  the  succes- 
sion of  the  ministry,  because  we  find  the  Church  from  the 
very  beginning  flowing  out  of  the  ministry.  He  distorts  that 
conception  of  the  ministry  who  ever  allows  it  to  be  the  means 
of  separating  clergy  from  laity,  and  making  men  think  that 
the  great  body  consists  of  the  clergy  only,  or  that  the  clergy 
only  are  the  life  of  the  body.  The  purpose  of  that  succes- 
sion is  to  link  the  Church  of  the  present  from  generation  to 
generation,  back,  by  steps  that  cannot  be  mistaken,  to  the 
first  appointment  of  the  Apostles  by  the  Lord.  The  purpose 
of  that  succession  is  to  make  men  feel  the  unity  of  the  body 
as  it  comes  dowm  the  stream  of  history,  and,  if  possible,  to 
touch  their  hearts  with  some  sense  of  that  power  which  the 
Lord  bequeathed  when  He  ascended  up  on  high  and  gave 
gifts  to  men  ;  with  some  sense  of  that  grace  which  He  prom- 
ised when  He  said  that  He  would  be  wdth  us  always,  even  to 
the  end  of  the  world  ;  some  sense  of  that  undying  life  which 
shall  still,  until  He  comes  again,  unite  those  who  love  Him 
with  Himself,  and  spread  the  knowledge  of  His  name  through- 
out the  human  race.     To  this  persistence  of  the  Church  as  a 


114  THE   MISSION    OF    THE   CHURCH 

living  body  a  Cathedral  ever  bears  a  silent  but  visible  wit- 
ness ;  the  seat  of  Bishop  after  Bishop,  not  ruling  in  his  own 
name ;  not  by  virtue  of  his  own  abilities  ;  not  giving  to  pos- 
terity the  narrow  legacy  of  his  own  opinions  nor  institutions 
that  shall  for  ever  represent  himself,  but  each  in  succession 
handing  on  the  life  and  power  of  the  Church  of  Christ." 

Archdeacon  Sinclair  makes  much  of  the  "  invisible  "  and 
"ideal"  Church,  of  which  we  are  constituted  members  by 
faith.  No  doubt  this  idea  took  powerful  hold  of  the  minds 
of  the  Reformers  and  of  later  Protestants ;  yet  as  the 
Lutheran  Rothe  pointed  out  (see  Ch.  and  Min.,  p.  19)  it 
does  not  represent  the  thought  of  the  early  Church,  nor  does 
it  that  of  the  New  Testament.  It  is  true  (1)  that  part  of 
the  Church,  i.e.  that  in  Paradise,  is  invisible  to  us:  and 
(2)  that  many  conscientious  good  men  are  not  members  of 
the  Church  now,  who  yet  will,  we  trust,  become  members 
of  the  Church  in  Paradise.  Also  (3)  that  all  baptized  per- 
sons are  as  such  members  of  the  one  Church  on  earth,  even 
though  they  are  living  in  very  broken  relation  to  it.  Also 
(4)  that  the  Church  does  not  represent  the  w^hole  sphere 
of  the  divine  action,  and  is  not  therefore  simply  identical 
with  the  kingdom  of  God.  But  the  Church  so  far  as  it  is 
on  earth,  means  nothing  else  than  the  visible  organized 
body  of  baptized  persons,  worthy  or  unworthy.  The  word 
"  Church "  throughout  the  New  Testament  stands  for  the 
same  thing,  and  not  at  one  time  for  a  visible  society,  at 
another  for  an  ideal  or  invisible  relation. 

Note  3,  to  p.  18. 

Necessity  of  sacraments  not  absolute.  See  St.  Thom.  Aq. 
P.  iii.  Q.  68.  Art.  2.  "  Deus  .  .  .  cuius  potentia  sacramentis 
visibilibus  non  alligatur,  cf.  S.  Aug.  Quaestt.  in  Levit.  84. 
Proinde  colligitur  invisibilem  sanctificationem  quibusdam 
affuisse  et  profuisse  sine  visibilibus  sacramentis  .  .  .  nee 
tamen  ideo  sacramentum  visibile  contemnendum  est ;  nam 
contemptor  eius  invisibiliter  sanctificari  nullo  modo  potest." 


APPENDED   NOTES  115 

See  also  Andrewes  in  Lihr.  of  Angl.  Cath.   TheoL,  Sermons 
vol.  V.  p.  92  "  Gratia  Dei  iion  alligatur  mediis." 

Note  4,  to  p.  21. 

Irenaeu^  on  the  elements  of  the  Christian  religion.  The 
language  of  Irenaeus,  the  great  representative  in  the  second 
century  of  the  principle  of  apostolic  tradition,  is  very  striking. 
C.  Haer,  iv.  33,  8.  "The  true  knowledge  (the  Christian 
religion)  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostles  and  the  ancient 
system  of  the  Church  in  all  the  world ;  and  the  character  of 
the  body  of  Christ  according  to  the  successions  of  the 
bishops  to  w^hom  they  (the  Apostles)  delivered  the  Church 
in  each  separate  place ;  the  complete  use  moreover  of  the 
Scripture  which  has  come  down  to  our  time,  preserved  with- 
out corruption,  receiving  neither  addition  nor  loss;  its  public 
reading  without  falsification  ;  legitimate  and  careful  exposi- 
tion according  to  the  scriptures,  without  peril  and  without 
blasphemy ;  and  the  pre-eminent  gift  of  love." 

Note  5,  to  p.  32. 

The  contents  of  the  New  Testament  'tradition."  We  should 
gather  from  the  New  Testament  that  the  original  "catecheti- 
cal teaching  "  contained  («)  instruction  in  the  facts  of  our 
Lord's  life,  death,  resurrection,  &c.,  cf.  Luke  i.  1-4;  1  Cor.  xi. 
23,  XV.  3-4.  (b)  Listruction  in  the  meaning  of  sacred  rites, 
baptism,  laying  on  of  hands,  eucharist,  Heb.  vi.  1-6;  cf. 
Rom.  vi.  3;  1  Cor.  x.  15-16,  xi.  23  ff.;  cf.  Acts  ii.  38.  This 
would  have  included  the  learning  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  see 
Didache,  8.  (c)  Instruction  in  the  moral  obligations  of  "the 
way "  and  in  the  "  last  things "  Heb.  vi.  1-2 ;  1  Thess.  iv. 
1-2,  V.  2.  We  must  add  to  this,  what  I  think  almost  all  New- 
Testament  writings  would  imply,  (d)  instruction  in  the 
meaning  of  "  the  Name  "  —  the  Name  of  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost.  (The  Judaic,  semi-Christian,  character 
of  the  instruction  in  the  Didache,  whether  moral,  doctrinal. 


116  THE  MISSIOK   OF   THE  CHURCH 

or  sacramental,  see  the  Ch.  and  the  Min.,  pp.411  f.,  makes 
its  emphatic  witness  to  the  Threefold  Name  (see  c.  7)  the 
more  important.)  In  all  cases  the  references  I  have  given 
above  are  not  references  to  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment books,  but  the  teaching  which  those  books  imply  to 
have  been  already  given. 

Note  6,  to  p.  38. 

The  Anglican  doctrine  of  the  sacraments.  Nothing  surely 
can  be  richer  or  better  than  Hooker's  teaching  on  the 
sacraments  in  principle.  E.  P.  v.  50,  56  ff.  If  all  parties 
could  agree  on  what  he  teaches  positively,  it  would  be  well 
for  the  Church  of  England.  And  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten 
how  strongly,  and  surely  rightly.  Hooker,  with  the  older 
Catholic  writers,  insists,  against  some  more  recent  schoolmen, 
that  God  is  the  direct  agent  in  the  bestowal  of  grace  on  the 
occasion  of  each  sacrament  —  "solum  Deum  producere  gra- 
tiam  ad  praesentiam  sacraniQutorum."    E.  P.  vi.  6,  10-11. 


Note  7,  to  p.  38. 

The  Anglican  re juirement  of  the  apostolic  succession.  On 
this  subject  let  me  refer  to  the  careful  language  of  Prof. 
Stanton,  The  Place  of  Authority  in  Religious  Belief  (Loug- 
mans,  1891),  pp.  204  ff.,  and  225  ff.  See  also  the  Catena  of 
Anglican  Divines  in  Tracts  for  the  Times,  No.  74.  One  may 
recognize  that  as  a  fact  the  Anglican  divines  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  admitted  exceptions  to  the  necessity  of 
episcopal  ordination  without  either  thinking  their  teaching 
on  this  head  seriously  dangerous,  or  on  the  other  hand 
regarding  it  as  quite  adequate  to  ancient  standards.  Arch- 
deacon Sinclair  does  not,  to  my  mind  (1.  c.  pp.  55  ff.),  use 
these  Anglican  divines  quite  fairly.  To  mention  two  points : 
they  are  speaking  of  Protestants  who  "want  an  ordinary 
succession  tdthout  their  own  fault,  out  of  invincible  ignorance 
or  necessity,"  or  "  where  bishops  could  not  be  had."     Now 


APPENDED   NOTES  117 

these  qualifications  greatly  limit  the  application  of  their 
words.  Secondly,  they  show  no  tenderness  at  all  to  schis- 
matics in  their  own  country.  If  I  were  a  Nonconformist 
I  would  sooner  be  dealt  with  by  a  modern  High  Churchman 
than  by  a  Caroline  divine,  though  the  modern  High  Church- 
man taught  by  experience  has  returned  to  the  simpler 
ancient  doctrine  of  the  apostolic  succession  as  necessary  not 
indeed  to  the  salvation  of  an  individual,  but  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  a  Church. 

Note  8,  to  p.  40. 

The  meaning  of  the  word  "  spiritual."  Cf .  Milligan,  Resur- 
rection of  our  Lord  (Macmillan,  1st  ed.),  note  15,  p.  247: 
*'  An  element  of  confusion  is  introduced  into  all  our  thoughts 
upon  this  subject  by  the  ambiguity  of  such  words  as  '  spirit ' 
and  'spiritual.'  We  are  apt  to  think  of  them  as  antithetical 
to  '  body '  and  '  bodily.'  How  far  this  is  from  the  view  of 
the  New  Testament  the  single  passage  1  Cor.  xv.  44  is  sufl&- 
cient  to  prove.  The  antithesis  of  scripture  is  not  of  the 
spiritual  and  the  bodily,  but  that  of  the  spiritual  and  the 
carnal."  It  is  of  course  the  case  that  "spirit"  as  applied  to 
God  or  to  the  angels,  carries  with  it  (e.  g.  St.  John  iv.  24) 
associations  of  immateriality,  but  the  glorified  Christ  in  His 
risen  body  is  also  called  simply  "  spirit "  1  Cor.  xv.  45,  and 
the  adjective  "spiritual"  (see  1  Cor.  xv.  44)  or  the  phrase 
"according  to  the  spirit"  carries  with  it  no  sort  of  opposi- 
tion to  materiality :  that  is  spiritual  which  is  according  to 
the  law  of  the  spirit,  or  the  expression  of  spirit. 

Note  9,  to  p.  47. 

Gnostic  esotericism  and  Christian  universality.  On  this 
subject  see  Lightfoot's  note  on  Col.  i.  28 ;  and  Neander's 
Ch.  Hist.  (Bonn's  trans.),  ii.  pp.  33,  34.  The  effect  of  the 
Gnostic  controversy  on  the  sacramental  and  ecclesiastical 
teaching  of  Christianity  appears  most  clearly  in  Ignatius' 
letters,  Irenaeus  B.  iii.  1-4,  iv.  17-18,  v.  2-3.  Tertullian, 
De  Res.  Cam.  8  and  De  Praescr. 


118  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 


Note  10,  to  p.  48. 

Tertullian  on  the  simplicity  of  Christian  sacraments.  See 
De  Bapt.  2.  "  Nihil  adeo  est,  quod  tarn  obduret  mentes 
liominum,  qiiam  simplicitas  divinorum  operum  quae  in  actu 
videtur  et  magnificeiitia  quae  in  effectu  repromittitur :  ut 
hie  quoque  quoniam  tanta  simplicitate  sine  pompa,  sine 
apparatu  novo  aliquo,  denique  sine  sumptu  homo  in  aqua 
demissus  et  inter  pauca  verba  tinctus  non  multo  vel  nihilo 
mundior  resurgit,  eo  incredibilis  existimetur  consecutio 
aeternitatis.  Mentior,  si  non  e  eontrario  idolorum  sollemnia 
vel  arcana  de  suggestu  et  apparatu  deque  sumptu  fidem  et 
auctoritatem  sibi  exstruunt.  Pro  misera  incredulitas,  quae 
denegas  Deo  proprietates  suas,  simplicitatem  et  potestatem." 

Note  11,  to  p.  50. 

Goethe  071  the  sacramental  system.  There  is  a  very  remark- 
able passage  in  Goethe's  Autobiography  (Dichtung  unci 
Wahrheit,  see  Bohn's  Trans.,  vol.  i.  p.  21:5-248),  where,  com- 
plaining of  the  paucity  of  Protestant  sacraments,  he  writes : 
"  In  moral  and  religious,  as  well  as  in  physical  and  civil 
matters,  a  man  does  not  like  to  do  anything  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment ;  he  needs  a  sequence  such  as  results  in  habit ; 
what  he  is  to  love  and  perform,  he  cannot  represent  to  him- 
self as  single  or  isolated,  and  if  he  is  to  repeat  anything 
willingly,  it  must  not  have  become  strange  to  him.  As  the 
Protestant  worship  lacks  fulness  in  general,  so,  if  it  be 
investigated  in  detail,  it  will  be  found  that  the  Protestant 
has  too  few  sacraments,  nay,  indeed,  he  has  only  one  in 
w^hich  he  is  himself  an  actor  —  the  Lord's  Supper  :  for  bap- 
tism he  sees  only  when  it  is  performed  on  others,  and  is  not 
greatly  edified  by  it.  The  sacraments  are  the  highest  part 
of  religion,  the  symbols  to  our  senses  of  an  extraordinary 
divine  favour  and  grace.  In  the  Lord's  Supper  earthly  lips 
are  to  receive  a  divine  Being  embodied,  and  partake  of  an 
heavenly  under  the  form  of  an  earthly  nourishment.     This 


APPENDED  NOTES  119 

idea  is  just  the  same  in  all  Christian  churches  ;  whether  the 
sacrament  is  taken  with  more  or  less  submission  to  the 
mystery,  with  more  or  less  accommodation  to  what  is  intel- 
ligible ;  it  always  remains  a  great  and  holy  action,  which  in 
reality  takes  the  place  of  the  possible  or  impossible,  the 
place  of  that  which  man  can  neither  attain  nor  do  without. 
But  such  a  sacrament  should  not  stand  alone ;  no  Christian 
can  partake  of  it  with  the  true  joy  for  which  it  is  given,  if 
the  symbolical  or  sacramental  sense  is  not  fostered  within 
him.  He  must  be  accustomed  to  regard  the  inner  religion 
of  the  heart  and  that  of  the  external  church  as  perfectly 
one ;  as  the  great  universal  sacrament,  which  again  divides 
itself  into  so  many  others,  and  communicates  to  these  parts 
its  holiness,  indestructibleness,  and  eternity." 

This  is  followed  by  a  wonderfully  appreciative  account  of 
the  sequence  of  sacraments,  adapted  to  all  stages  of  human 
life,  in  the  Catholic  Church. 

Note  12,  to  p.  52. 

Christians  have  no  need  to  ask  for  the  Spirit.  See  Moule, 
Veni  Creator  (Hodder  &  Stoughton,  1890),  pp.  222-3.  The 
Christian  Church  has  in  fact  habitually  invoked  the  Holy 
Spirit —  "Veni,  Creator  Spiritus  "  "  Veni,  sancte  Spiritus  "  — 
and  such  language  has  a  clear  meaning  in  view  of  the  fact  that 
what  God  has  given  He  is  still  perpetually  giving.  But  the 
fact  about  the  Xew  Testament  language  is  as  stated  in  the  text. 
See  Rom.  viii.  9,  15,  16 ;  Gal.  v.  25  ;  Eph.  iv.  30  ;  1  Thess.  v. 
19  ;  Heb.  vi.  4;  1  John  iii.  24;  cf.  1  Tim.  iv.  14;  2  Tim.  i.  6. 


Note  13,  to  p.  54. 

Infants  who  are  proper  subjects  of  baptism.  It  is  the  general 
teaching  of  the  Church  that  the  children  of  non-Christian 
parents,  are  not,  till  they  come  to  years  of  discretion,  fit  sub- 
jects of  baptism,  unless  their  parents  give  them  to  the  Church. 
See  St.  Thorn.  Aq.  Summa  Theol.  P.  iii.  Q.  68.  Art.  10.     (This 


120  THE   MISSION   OF   THE   CHURCH 

decision  he  bases  on  the  fact  that  they  have  not  yet  in  them- 
selves the  exercise  of  will ;  that  it  is  against  the  will,  and  so 
against  the  natural  right  of  the  parent:  that  it  generates 
scandal  through  relapses.)  On  the  other  hand,  the  Church 
since  St.  Paul,  regards  the  children  of  a  Christian  parent,  as 
fit  subjects  for  baptism.  See  1  Cor.  vii.  14.  The  children 
are  "holy,"  i.  e.  as  Tertullian  interprets,  "designati  sancti- 
tati  ac  per  hoc  etiam  saluti"  {De  An.  29).  The  reason  is 
that  the  faith  of  the  parent  offers  the  child  for  baptism,  and 
truly  represents  it.  Thus  the  68th  canon  (of  1603)  decrees 
the  penalty  of  suspension  for  three  months  upon  any  minister 
who  refuses  to  christen  according  to  the  form  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  any  child  that  is  brought  to  him  upon  Sun- 
days or  Holydays  to  be  christened.  Besides  the  faith  of  the 
parents  a  guarantee  is  also  provided  in  the  faith  of  the  spon- 
sors who  represent  the  Church.  "  Children,"  says  St.  Augus- 
tine, "  are  presented  to  receive  spiritual  grace  not  so  much  by 
those  who  bear  them  in  their  arms  —  though  by  them  too  if 
they  are  also  good  Christians  —  or  by  the  whole  society  of 
the  faithful"  {Ej^.  98.  5). 

The  principle  in  all  this  is  that/a<7/i  is  to  he  required  when 
baptism  is  to  be  administered ;  either  the  faith  of  the  person 
to  be  baptized  or,  in  the  case  of  a  child,  of  those  who  under- 
take for  him,  his  parents  or  the  Church.  This  representative 
faith,  which  guarantees  the  Christian  education  of  children, 
is  plainly  demanded  by  our  baptismal  office,  as  a  condition 
of  baptism.  We  violate  then  a  fundamental  principle,  and 
degrade  a  sacrament  to  the  level  of  a  charm,  if  we  get  chil- 
dren to  be  baptized  indiscriminately,  i.  e.  without  reference 
to  their  Christian  bringing  up.  It  must  be  wrong  to  put 
undue  pressure  upon  parents  to  have  their  children  baptized 
where  it  is  even  reasonably  certain  that  they  will  not  either 
act  towards  them,  or  alloio  the  Church  to  act,  as  Christian 
parents  should.  Some  initiative  on  the  part  of  the  parents, 
or  some  guarantee  on  behalf  of  the  Church,  ought  to  be 
asked  for  :  see,  on  the  general  subject,  Maskell,  Holt/  Baptit 
(Pickering,  1848),  pp.  336-348. 


m 


APPENDED  NOTES  121 


Note  14,  to  p.  68. 

Science  cannot  proceed  loithout  assumptions.  See  Herbert 
Spencer,  First  Principles  (Williams  &  Norgate,  5tli  ed.  1887), 
pp.  137  f .  "  111  what  way,  then,  must  philosophy  set  out  ? 
The  developed  intelligence  is  framed  upon  certain  organized 
and  consolidated  conceptions  of  which  it  cannot  divest  itself : 
and  which  it  can  no  more  stir  without  using  than  the  body 
can  stir  without  help  of  its  limbs.  In  what  way,  then,  is  it 
possible  for  intelligence,  striving  after  Philosophy,  to  give 
any  account  of  these  conceptions,  and  to  show  either  their 
validity  or  their  invalidity?  There  is  but  one  way  ;  those  of 
them  which  are  vital,  or  cannot  be  severed  from  the  rest 
wdthout  vital  dissolution,  must  be  assumed  as  true  provision- 
ally. The  fundamental  intuitions  that  are  necessary  to  the 
process  of  thinking,  must  be  temporarily  accepted  as  unques- 
tionable :  leaving  the  assumption  of  their  unquestionable- 
ness  to  be  justified  by  the  results.  How  is  it  to  be  justified 
by  the  results  ?  As  any  other  assumption  is  justified  —  by 
ascertaining  that  all  the  conclusions  deducible  from  it,  cor- 
respond with  the  facts  as  directly  observed  —  by  showing 
the  agreement  between  the  experiences  it  leads  us  to  antici- 
pate and  the  actual  experiences.  There  is  no  metJiod  of  estab- 
lishing the  validity  of  any  belief  except  that  of  shoiving  its  entire 
congruity  with  all  other  beliefs." 

I  have  italicized  the  last  sentence,  and  would  compare 
with  it  an  admirable  passage  on  the  relation  of  philosophy 
to  ordinary  assumptions,  scientific  and  religious,  in  E.  Caird's 
Philosophy  of  Kant  (Maclehose,  Glasgow,  1877)  pp.  34-5. 
The  line  of  thought  may  be  pursued  in  Holland's  Logic  and 
Life  (Longmans)  Sermons  i-iii,  and  in  Newman's  Univ. 
Sermons,  "  Implicit  and  Explicit  Reason." 

Note  15,  to  p.  73. 

Evolution  and  its  relation  to  Religious  Thought.  See  an 
excellent  work,  with  this  title,  by  the  distinguished  Ameri- 


122  THE   MISSION    OF   THE   CHUKCH 

can  man  of  science,  Prof.  Leconte  (Chapman  &  Hall).  The 
first  two  parts  of  the  book  are  occuj)ied  with  the  statement 
of  the  theory  of  evolution  and  of  the  evidence  on  which  it 
rests.  The  third  part  considers  the  relation  of  the  theory 
to  Theism  in  general  and  Christianity  in  particular.  (From 
the  theological  point  of  view  Prof.  Leconte's  remarks  upon 
the  theory  of  moral  evil  are  surely  inadequate,  ed.  2.  pp. 
369  ff.) 

Note  16,  to  p.  98. 

The  resolutions  of  the  Conference  of  Bishops  of  the  Anglican 
Communion  (July  1888)  in  regard  to  Divorce.  See  Encycli- 
cal Letter  ivith  Resolutions  and  Reports  (S.  P.  C.  K.  1888) 
Resol.  4. 

"  (1)  That  inasmuch  as  our  Lord's  words  expressly  forbid 
divorce,  except  in  the  case  of  fornication  or  adultery,  the 
Christian  Church  cannot  recognize  divorce  in  any  other  than 
the  excepted  case,  or  give  any  sanction  to  the  marriage  of 
any  person  who  has  been  divorced  contrary  to  this  law, 
during  the  life  of  the  other  party. 

^'  (2)  That  under  no  circumstances  ought  the  guilty  party 
in  the  case  of  a  divorce  for  adultery,  to  be  regarded,  during 
the  life-time  of  the  innocent  party,  as  a  fit  recipient  of  the 
blessing  of  the  Church  on  marriage. 

"  (3)  That  recognizing  that  there  always  has  been  a 
difference  of  opinion  in  the  Church  on  the  question  whether 
our  Lord  meant  to  forbid  marriage  to  the  innocent  party  in  a 
divorce  for  adultery,  the  conference  recommends  that  the 
clergy  should  not  be  instructed  to  refuse  the  sacraments  or 
other  privileges  of  the  Church  to  those  who,  under  civil 
sanctions,  are  thus  married. 

"  (4)  That  whereas  doubt  has  been  entertained  whether 
our  Lord  meant  to  permit  such  marriage  to  the  innocent 
party,  the  Conference  are  unwilling  to  suggest  any  precise 
instruction  in  the  matter."  The  Bishop  of  the  diocese  is  to 
decide  "  whether  clergy  would  be  justified  in  refraining  from 
pronouncing  the  blessing  of  the  Church  on  such  unions." 


APPENDED   NOTES  123 

These  Pan-Anglican  Conferences  are  not  legitimate  synods, 
provincial  or  general,  and  the  language  of  this  resolution 
implies  the  recognition  of  this  fact.  But  the  resolutions 
represent  fairly  the  present  mind  of  Anglican  bishops,  given 
with  a  due  sense  of  spiritual  responsibility.  For  "  the  differ- 
ence of  opinion  which  there  has  always  been  in  the  Church" 
on  the  respect  of  the  re-marriage  of  the  innocent  party, 
reference  may  be  made  to  the  Library  of  the  Fathers.  Ter- 
tullian,  Note  O.  pp.  431  f. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Dr.  Liddon,  in  a  letter  to  the 
Guardian  of  Sept.  19,  1888,  recording  Dr.  Dollinger's  general 
satisfaction  at  the  results  of  the  Pan-Anglican  Conference 
writes  :  "  To  advert  to  a  point  which  has  caused  some  anxiety 
—  the  Conference  was,  as  he  believed,  right  in  recommend- 
ing that  the  clergy,  should  not  be  instructed  to  refuse  the 
sacraments  to  the  innocent  party  who  remarried  after  a 
divorce  for  adultery.  He  still  had  no  doubt  that  iropvcca  in 
St.  Matt.  V.  32  and  xix.  9  could  not  mean  /xot;)(eta  but  must 
refer  to  something  that  had  taken  place  before  the  marriage 
contract.  The  decision  of  the  Conference  was,  however,  jus- 
tified by  the  history  of  opinion  in  the  Church,  about  which 
he  had  more  to  say  than  could  be  compressed  into  a  letter." 

But  the  Anglican  107th  Canon  of  1603,  with  the  Western 
Church  as  a  whole,  takes  the  stricter  line  of  forbidding  the 
re-marriage  of  either  party  in  a  divorce  and  separation  "  a 
thoro  et  mensa "  during  each  other's  life.  This  line  is 
undoubtedly  more  logical,  but  there  does  not  seem  to  be 
adequate  authority  ior  enforcing  it. 

XoTE  17,  to  p.  109. 

Christ  our  example  and  our  inward  life.  The  Collect  for 
the  Octave  of  the  Epiphany  expresses  this  thought  very 
beautifully  :  —  "  Deus  cuius  unigenitus  in  substantia  nos- 
trae  carnis  apparuit,  praesta,  quaesumus,  ut  per  eum,  quern 
similem  nobis  foris  agnovimus,  intus  reformari  mereamur ; 
qui  tecum  vivit." 


CHURCH    HISTORY, 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  With  a  View  of  tho 
State  of  the  Roman  World  at  the  Birth  of  Christ.  By 
GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Church 
History  in  Yale  College.    8vo,  $2.50. 

THE  BOSTON  ADVERTISER.— "Prof.  Fisher  has  displayea  in  this,  as  in  his 
previous  published  writings,  that  catholicity  and  that  calm  jufiicial  quality  of 
mind  which  are  so  indispensable  to  a  true  historical  critic." 

THE  EXAMINER.— "The  volume  is  not  a  dry  repetition  of  well-known  facts. 
It  bears  the  marks  of  original  research.  Every  paL,e  glows  with  freshness  of 
material  and  choiceness  of  diction." 

THE  EVANGELIST.— "The  volume  contains  an  amount  of  information  that 
makes  it  one  of  the  most  useful  of  treatises  for  a  student  in  philosGpl}y  and 
theology,  and  must  secure  for  it  a  place  in  his  library  as  a  standard  authority." 

HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  By  GEORGE  P. 
FISHER,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in 
Yale  University.    8vo,  with  numerous  maps,  S3. 50. 

This  work  is  in  several  respects  notable.  It  gives  an  able  presenta- 
tion of  the  subject  in  a  single  volume,  thus  supplying  the  need  of  a 
complete  and  at  the  same  time  condensed  survey  of  Church  History. 
It  will  also  be  found  much  broader  and  more  comprehensive  than  other 
books  of  the  kind.     The  following  will  indicate  its  aim  and  scope. 

FROM  THE  PREFACE.— "There  are  two  particulars  in  which  I  have  sought 
to  make  the  narrative  specially  serviceable.  In  the  first  place  the  attempt  has 
been  made  to  exhibit  fully  the  relations  of  the  history  of  Christianity  and  of  the 
Church  to  contemporaneous  secular  history.  *  *  »  i  have  tried  to  bring  out 
more  distinctly  than  i3  usually  doao  tho  interaction  of  events  and  changes  in  the 
political  sphere,  with  the  phenomena  which  belong  more  strictly  to  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal and  religious  province.  In  the  second  place  it  has  seemed  to  me  possible  to 
present  a  tolerably  complete  survey  of  the  history  of  theological  doctrine.    *    »    • 

"  It  has  appeared  to  me  better  to  express  frankly  the  conclusions  to  wMch  my 
Investigations  have  led  me,  on  a  variety  of  topics  where  differences  of  opinion 
exist,  than  to  take  refuge  in  ambiguity  or  silence.  Something  of  the  dispassionate 
temper  of  an  onlooker  may  be  expected  to  result  from  historical  studiei  if  long 
pursued ;  nor  is  this  an  evil,  if  there  is  kept  alive  a  warm  sympathy  with  the  spirit 
of  holiness  and  love,  "wherever  it  is  manifest. 

"As  thi3  book  is  designed  not  for  technical  students  exclusively,  but  for  intel- 
ligent readers  generally,  the  temptation  to  enter  into  extended  and  minute  diacu*" 
Bioiis  on  perplexed  or  controverted  topics  has  been  resisted." 


STANDARD    TEXT  BOOKS. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  By  PHILIP  SCHAFF, 
D.D.  New  Edition,  re-written  and  enlarged.  Vol.  I.— Apos* 
tolic  Christianity,  A.D.  1-100.  Vol.  II  — Ante-Nicene  Chris- 
tianity, A.D.  100-325.  Vol.  III.— Nicene  and  Post-Nicene 
Christianity,  A.D.  311-600.  Vol.  IV.-Mediaeval  Christianity, 
A.D.  590-1073.    8vo,  pri>ce  per  vol.,  $4.00. 

This  work  is  extremely  comprehensive.  All  subjects  that  properly 
belong  to  a  complete  sketch  are  treated,  including  the  history  of  Chris- 
tian art,  hyranolog-y,  accounts  of  the  lives  and  chief  works  of  the 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  etc.  The  great  theological,  christological,  and 
anthropological  controversies  of  the  period  are  duly  sketched  ;  and  in 
all  the  details  of  history  the  organizing  hand  of  a  master  is  distinctly 
seen,  shaping  the  mass  of  materials  into  order  and  system. 

PROF.  GEO.  p.  FISHER,  Of  Yale  College.— "Dr.  SchaS  ha2  thoroughly  and 
successfully  accomplished  his  task.  The  volumes  are  replete  with  evidences  of  a 
careful  study  of  the  original  sources  and  of  an  extraordinary  and,  we  might  say, 
unsurpassed  acquaintance  with  the  modern  literature— German,  French,  and 
English— in  the  department  of  ecclesiastical  history.  They  are  equally  marked  by 
a  fair-minded,  conscientious  spirit,  as  well  as  by  a  lucid,  animated  mode  of 
presentation." 

PROF.  ROSWELL  D.  HITCHCOCK,  D.D.— "In  no  other  single  work  of 
its  kind  witli  which  I  am  acquainted  will  students  and  general  readers  find  so 
much  to  instruct  and  interest  them." 

DR.  JUL.  MULLER,  of  Halle.— "It  is  the  only  history  of  the  first  six  cen- 
turies which  truly  satisfies  the  wants  of  the  present  age.  It  is  rich  in  results  of 
original  investigation." 

HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  CHRIST,  IN  CHRONOLOGI- 
CAL TABLES.  A  Synchronistic  View  of  the  Events,  Charac- 
teristics, and  Culture  of  each  period,  including  the  History  of 
Polity,  Worship,  Literature,  and  Doctrines,  together  with  two 
Supplementary  Tables  upon  the  Church  in  America;  and  an 
Appendix,  containing  the  series  of  Councils,  Popes,  Patri- 
archs, and  o^her  Bishops,  and  a  full  Index.  By  the  late 
HENRY  B.  SMITH,  D.D.,  Professor  in  the  Union  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Revised  Edition. 
Folio,  $5.00. 

REV.  DR.  W.  G.  T.  SHEDD.— " Prof.  Smith's  Historical  Tables  are  the  best 
that  I  know  of  in  any  language.  In  preparing  such  a  work,  with  so  much  care  and 
research,  Prof.  Smith  has  furnished  to  the  student  an  apparatus  that  will  l:e  of 
life-long  service  to  him" 

REV.  DR.  WILLIAM  ADAMS.— " The  labor  expended  upon  such  a  work  is 
Immense,  and  its  accuracy  and  completeness  do  honor  to  the  research  and 
Bcholarship  of  its  author,  and  are  an  invaluable  acquisition  to  our  liicraiure." 


CHARLES  SCnrBNER'S  SONS* 


LECTURES  ON  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEWISH  CHURCH,  py 
ARTHUR  PENRHYN  STANLEY,  D.D.  With  Maps  and  Plans. 
New  Edition  from  New  Plates,  with  the  author's  latest  revis- 
ion. Part  I.— From  Abraham  to  Samuel.  Part  II.— From 
Samuel  to  the  Captivity.  Part  III.— From  the  Captivity  to 
the  Christian  Era.  Three  vols.,  12mo  ^sold  separately),  each 
$2.00. 

The  same— Westminster  Edition.  Three  vols.,  8vo  (sold  in  sets 
only^,  per  set,  $9.00. 

LECTURES  ON  THE   HISTORY  OF  THE  EASTERN   CHURCH. 

With  an  introduction  on  the  Study  of  Ecclesiastical  History. 
By  ARTHUR  PENRHYN  STANLEY,  D.D.  New  Edition  from 
New  Plates.    12mo,  $2.00. 

LECTURES  ON  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  SCOT- 
LAND. By  ARTHUR  PENRHYN  STANLEY,  D.D.  8vo,  $1.50. 

In  all  that  concerns  the  external  characteristics  of  the  scenes  and 
persons  described,  Dr.  Stanley  is  entirely  at  home.  His  books  are  not 
dry  records  of  historic  events,  but  animated  pictures  of  historic  scenes 
and  of  the  actors  in  them,  while  the  human  motives  and  aspects  of 
events  are  brought  out  in  bold  and  full  relief. 

THE  LONDON  CRITIC— "Earnest,  eloquent,  learned,  witU  a  style  that  i3 
never  monotonous,  but  luring  tlnrough  its  elociuencc,  the  lectures  will  maintain 
his  fame  as  author,  scholar,  and  divlno.  We  could  point  out  many  passages  that 
glow  with  a  true  poetic  fire,  but  there  are  hundreds  pictorlally  rich  and  poetically 
true.  The  reader  experiences  no  weariness,  for  in  every  paje  and  paragraph 
there  is  something  to  engage  the  mind  and  refresh  the  soul." 

THE  NEW  ENGLANDER.— "We  have  first  to  express  our  admiration  of  the 
grace  and  graphic  beauty  of  his  style.  The  felicitous  discrimination  in  the  u~e 
of  language  which  appears  on  every  page  is  especially  required  on  these  topics, 
where  the  author's  position  might  so  easily  be  miataljen  through  an  unguarded 
statement.  Dr.  Stanley  is  possessed  of  the  prime  quality  of  an  historical  student 
and  writer— namely,  the  historical  feeling,  or  sense,  by  which  conditions  of  life 
and  types  of  character,  remote  from  our  present  experience,  are  vividly  con. 
ceived  of  and  truly  appreciated." 

THE  N.  Y.  TIMES.— "The  Oid  Testament  History  is  here  presented  as  it 
never  was  presented  before  ;  with  so  much  clearness,  elegance  of  style,  and  his- 
toric and  literary  illustration,  not  to  speak  of  learning  and  calmness  of  judgment, 
that  not  theologians  alone,  but  also  cultivated  readers  generally,  are  drawn  to  its 
pages.  In  point  of  style  it  takes  rank  with  Macaulay's  History  and  the  best 
thapters  of  Froude." 


CHRISTIAN   EVIDENCES  AND 
HOMILETICS. 


THE  GROUNDS  OF  THEISTIC  AND  CHRISTIAN  BELIEF.  By 
Prof.  GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of 
Ecclesiastical  History  in  Yale  College.    Ct-own  8vo,  $2.50. 

FROM  THE  PREFACE.—"  This  volume  embraces  a  discussion  of  the  evidence.. 
of  both  natural  and  revealed  religion.  Prominence  is  given  to  topics  having 
special  interest  at  present  from  their  connection  with  modern  theories  and  diffi- 
culties. The  argument  of  design,  and  the  bearing  of  evolutionary  doctrines 
on  its  validity,  arc  fully  considered.  I  have  sought  to  direct  the  reader  into  lines 
of  reflection  which  may  serve  to  impress  him  with  the  truth  contained  in  the 
remark  that  the  strongest  proof  of  Christianity  is  afforded  by  Christianity  itself, 
and  by  Christendom  as  an  existing  fact,  I  venture  to  indulge  the  hope  that  they 
may  derive  from  it  some  aid  in  clearing  up  perplexities,  and  some  new  light  upon 
the  nature  of  the  Christian  faith  and  its  relation  to  the  Scriptures." 

JULIUS  H.  SEELYE,  President  of  AmJierrX  College.— "  I  GnO.  it  as  I  should  ex- 
pect it  to  be,  wise  and  candid,  and  convincing  to  an  honest  mind.  I  congratulate 
you  upon  its  publication,  In  which  you  seem  to  me  to  have  rendered  a  high 
public  service." 

PROF.  JAMES  O.  MURRAY,  Of  Princeton  College.— "  Tim  volnme  meets  here 
a  great  want,  and  meets  it  well.  It  is  eminently  fitted  to  meet  the  honest  doubta 
of  some  of  our  best  young  men.  Its  fairness  and  candor,  its  learning  and  ability 
In  argument,  its  thorough  handling  of  modern  objections— all  these  qualities  fit  it 
for  such  a  servise,  and  a  great  service  it  is." 

ESSAYS  ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL  ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTIAN- 
ITY. By  Prof.  GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor 
of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  Yale  College.  8vo,  new  and 
enlarged  edition,  $2.50. 

THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW.—"  Able  and  scholarly  essays  on  the  Superr 
natural  Origin  of  Christianity,  in  which  Prof.  Fisher  discusses  such  subjects  as 
the  genuineness  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  Baurs  view  of  early  Christian  History  and 
Literature,  and  the  mythical  theory  of  Strauss." 

THE  NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE.— "His  volume  evinces  rare  versatility  of  intellect* 
with  a  scholarship  no  less  sound  and  judicious  in  its  tone  and  extensive  in  its 
attainments  than  it  is  modest  in  its  pretensions." 

THE  BRITISH  QUARTERLY  REVIEW.- "We  know  not  Where  the  Student  wiij 
find  a  more  satisfactory  guide  in  relation  to  the  great  questions  which  have  grown 
up  between  the  friends  of  the  Cliristiaa  revelation  and  the  most  able  of  its 
ants,  within  the  memory  of  the  present  generation." 


CHARLES  SCRTBNER'S  SONS' 


THE  PHILOSOPHIC  BASIS  OF  THEISM.  An  Examinavion  of  the 
Personality  of  Man,  to  Ascertain  his  Capacity  to  Know  and 
Serve  God,  and  the  Validity  of  the  Principle  Underlying  tho 
Defense  of  Theism.  By  SAMUEL  HARRIS,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Systematic  Theology  in  Yale  College.    8vo,  $3.50. 

Dr.  Harris  embodies  in  his  work  the  results  of  his  long  meditation 
on  the  highest  themes,  and  his  Jong  discussion  and  presentation  of 
these  truths  in  the  class-room.  His  fundamental  positions  are  thor- 
oughly in  harmony  with  soundest  modern  thought  and  most  trust- 
worthy modern  knowledge. 

THE  INDEPENDENT.— "It  i3  rare  tbiat  a  work,  whicti  is  of  necessity,  so 
severely  metapliysical  in  both  topics  and  treatment,  is  so  enlivened  by  the 
varied  contributions  of  a  widely  cultivated  mind  from  a  li'-^eral  course  of 
reading.  Hi3  passionate  and  candid  argument  cannot  fail  to  command  the 
respect  of  any  antagonist  of  the  Atheistic  or  Agnostic  schools,  Avho  will  take 
the  pains  to  read  his  criticisms  or  to  review  his  argument.  In  respect  to  coolness 
and  dignity  and  self-possession,  his  work  is  an  excellent  model  for  scientists, 
metaphysicians,  and  theologians  of  every  complexion." 

THI  HARTFORD  COURANT.—" Professor  Harris'  horizon-lmes  are  uncon- 
tracted.  His  survey  cf  the  entire  realm  he  traverses  is  accurate,  patient,  and 
considerate.  No  objections  are  evaded.  No  conclusions  arc  reached  by  saltatory 
movcmenta.  The  utmost  fairness  and  candor  characterize  hi3  discussions,  No 
more  thoroughly  scientific  work  in  plan  or  method  or  spirit  has  been  done  in  our 
time.  On  almost  every  page  one  meets  with  evidences  of  a  wide  and  reflec- 
tive reading,  not  only  of  philosophy,  but  of  poetry  and  fiction  as  well,  which 
enriches  and  illumines  the  whole  course  of  thought." 

THE  SELF-REVELATION  OF  GOD.  By  SAMUEL  HARRIS, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Systematic  Theology  in  Yale  Col- 
lege.   8vo,  S3.50. 

In  this  volume  Dr  Harris  presents  a  statement  of  the  evidence  of 
the  existence  of  God,  and  of  the  reality  of  His  revelation  of  Himself 
in  the  experience  or  consciousness  of  men,  and  the  verification  of  the 
same  by  His  further  revelation  of  Himself  in  the  constitution  and 
ongoing  of  the  universe,  and  in  Christ. 

PnOF.  WM.  G.  T.  SHEDD,  D.D.,  in  TTie  Presbytei'ian  Beview.— "Such  a 
work  is  not  brought  out  in  a  day,  but  is  the  growth  of  years  of  professional  study 
and  reflection.  Few  books  on  apologetics  have  been  recently  produced  that  will 
be  more  influential  and  formative  upon  the  mind  of  the  theological  or  philosophi- 
cal student,  or  more  useful.  It  is  calculated  to  Influence  opinions,  and  to  influence 
them  truthfully,  seriously,  and  strongly." 

BISHOP  HURST,  in  The  Northwestern  Ch^ristian  Advocate.— "We  do  not 'kno\r 
a  better  work  among  recent  publina'ions  than  this  one  for  building  up  old  hopes 
and  giving  a  new  strength  to  one's  faith.  The  book  is  thoroughly  ovangeUc, 
fresh,  and  well  wrought  out.  It  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  our  American 
tlieology." 


STANDARD    TEXT  BOOKS. 


THE  THEORY  OF  PREACHING;  or,  Lectures  on  Homiletics. 
By  Professor  AUSTIN  PHELPS.    8vo,  $2.50. 

This  work  is  the  growth  of  more  than  thirty  years'  practical  ex- 
perience in  teaching.  The  writings  of  a  master  of  style,  of  broad  and 
catholic  mind  are  always  fascinating  ;  in  the  present  case  the  wealth 
of  appropriate  and  pointed  illustration  renders  this  doubly  the  case. 

THE  NEW  YORK  CHRISTIAN  ADVOCATE.— "  Ministers  of  all  denominati 3ns 
and  of  all  degrees  of  experience  will  rejoice  in  it  as  a  veritable  mine  of  wisdom." 

THE  INDEPENDENT.—  "  The  volume  is  to  te  commended  to  young  men  as  a 
superb  example  of  the  art  in  which  it  aims  to  instruct  them." 

THE  WATCHMAN.— "  The  reading  of  it  is  a  mental  tonic.  The  preacher 
cannot  but  feel  often  his  heart  burning  within  him  under  its  influence.  We  could 
wish  it  might  be  in  the  hands  of  every  theological  student  and  of  every  pastor." 

IVIEN  AND  BOOKS;  OR,  STUDIES  IN  HOMILETICS.  Lectures 
Introductory  to  the  "Theory  of  Preaching."  By  Professor 
AUSTIN  PHELPS,  D.D.    Crown  8vo,  S2.00. 

Professor  Phelps'  second  volume  of  lectures  is  devoted  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  sources  of  culture  and  power  in  the  profession  of  the 
pulpit,  its  power  to  absorb  and  appropriate  to  its  own  uses  the  world 
of  real  life  in  the  present,  and  the  world  of  the  past,  as  it  lives  in 
books. 

PROFESSOR  GEORGE  P.  FI3HER.— "It  i3  a  live  book,  animated  as  well  as 
sound  and  instructive,  in  which  conventionalities  are  brushed  aside,  and  the 
author  goes  straight  to  the  marrow  of  the  subject.  No  minister  can  read  it 
without  being  waked  up  to  a  higher  conception  of  the  possibilities  of  his  calling." 

BOSTON  WATCHMAN.—"  We  are  sure  that  no  minister  or  candidate  for  the 
ministry  can  read  it  without  profit.  It  is  a  tonic  for  one's  mind  to  read  a  book  so 
laden  with  thought  and  suggestion,  and  written  in  a  style  so  fresh,  strong,  and 
bracing." 

A  TREATISE  ON  HOMILETiCS  AND  PASTORAL  THEOLOGY. 
By  W.  G.  T.  SHEDD,  D.D.    Crown  8vo,  $2.50. 

In  this  work,  treating  of  the  main  points  of  Homiletics  and  Pastoral 
Theology,  the  author  handles  his  subject  in  a  masterly  manner,  and 
displays  much  original  and  highly  suggestive  thought.  The  Homileti- 
cal  part  is  especially  valuable  to  ministers  and  those  in  training  for  the 
ministry.  Dr.  Shedd's  style  is  a  model  of  purity,  simplicity  and 
strength. 

THE  NEW  YORK  EVANGELIST.—"  We  cannot  but  regard  it  as,  on  the  whole, 
the  very  best  production  of  the  kind  with  whic^i  we  are  acquainted.  The  topics 
discussed  are  of  the  first  importance  to  every  minister  of  Christ  engaged  in  active 
service,  and  their  discussion  i3  conducted  by  earnestness  as  well  as  ability,  and  in 
a  stylo  which  for  clear,  vigorous,  and  unexceptionaljle  English,  is  itself  a  model." 

THE  CHRISTIAN  INTELLIGZNCER.— "  The  ablest  booK  ou  the  subject  whicli 
Uie  generation  has  produced." 


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